Movies and Mayhem
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Sequel to "Brutus". The A-Team comes to the aid of a friend in between taking on a new client, continuing to dodge Decker, and breaking further into the movie business.
1. Chapter 1

Movies and Mayhem

"Hannibal, I am _never_ listening to you again," Face said during the long drive back from their most recent mission.

"Oh come on, Face, you're not still sore about what happened, are you?" Hannibal asked from where he sat up front with B.A.

"Sore?" Face repeated and practically flew forward into the front seat to make sure he had Hannibal's attention, "We nearly got killed! _Several_ times!"

"Aw Face you're exaggerating," Murdock told him, "Sure we may have been crushed to death when we got hot tarred to the railroad track, but really, if we'd crashed in that plane we most likely would've just gotten a few bones broken or maybe a skull fracture, but I don't think we would've gotten killed."

"Oh yeah?" Face asked, "And what about when those two goons tried throwing us out of the fifth story window?"

"People have survived six story falls," Murdock replied nonchalantly.

"I need to learn to stop listening," Face said, "Or pay better attention, _any_ time Hannibal says 'piece of cake', expect the worst. And on top of that, we go through all that trouble for another client who can't afford to pay us!"

"Oh don't be so dramatic, Face," Hannibal said with a smirk, "Miss Collins told us she'd have us paid off within a few months."

"Yeah, try 32 of them," Face told him, "Hannibal, we've got to stop taking all these charity cases."

B.A. just rolled one eye and kept the other on the road while the three of them were jibber-jabbering amongst themselves, he saw the sign up ahead that told him they were finally back to Los Angeles. That was all he wanted to know; Faceman was right, it _had_ been a horrible mission, and he was glad it was finally over, but after everything they had gone through this time he really didn't care if they got paid or not, all he cared about was that they were back home, and for a while anyway, they could get things back to normal, or as normal as things ever were for them.

"Hannibal, I keep telling you this and one day it's going to happen," Face hovered over the front seat to look down at the colonel, "We've got to start limiting who we take jobs for to people who can actually afford us."

Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth and looked up at Face and said, "Now where would the fun be in that, Face?"

"Besides," Murdock reminded him, "How can you say no to all those adorable little orphans? For all you know some of them could be your little brothers and sisters."

B.A.'s unexpected slam on the brakes sent the other three men forward and Face bashed his head against the front seat as he was thrown against it. Face groaned and put his hand on his forehead and asked B.A. was that was about, but he got his answer when they all saw what B.A. had seen. Out of nowhere a white car came speeding through, off of a side road and zipped past them, B.A. had hit the brakes and swerved the van to the side just in time to avoid crashing into the car.

"What was that?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know but I don't see anybody chasing it," Hannibal noted, "So let's see what _this_ guy's rush is."

The tires squealed and left an inch of rubber burnt onto the street as B.A. stomped on the accelerator and chased after the other car, which as far as Face could make out from the back view was a 1982 corvette coupe, all white like it had been freshly painted. The car had a good head start on them but it didn't take them long once they got up to 80 miles an hour to catch up with it; but the driver led them on a long chase that got far off the main road and out of civilization and into a wooded area that looked like the jungles of Guatemala. The car spun and swerved every which way but the driver never lost control and always managed to stay a step ahead of them; finally hitting the brakes and burning the tire tracks onto the dirt road under the car as it came to a swerving stop, and the van promptly stopped right behind it.

"Let's see what this guy's problem is," Hannibal said. He turned and saw Murdock had gotten out one of the AC556K rifles and said, "Keep that out of sight until we know what we're dealing with, Murdock, we might not have a fight with this guy."

"If that were the case, we wouldn't have chased him," Face commented.

Murdock saluted the colonel and kept the rifle down at his side, they got out of the van and went over to the car, where the driver's door had been thrown open and the driver was stepping out.

Hannibal thought this had to be some kind of a joke; he knew that it wasn't time for Halloween but couldn't offhand think of another reason why the driver was dressed in a white racing suit, including white gloves, white boots, and a white helmet with a black visor, so it was impossible to see the driver's face.

"Alright, pal," Hannibal said as the driver slowly reached up and removed his helmet, "You've got some explaining to do for breaking the sound barrier back there and I'd recommend you start now."

The helmet came off and a pile of red hair fell down the back of the driver's neck and around her face.

"Hannibal Smith," she said as she carried the helmet under her arm, "Fancy running into you here."

Jean Rhodes. Hannibal felt like he'd fallen down a rabbit hole somewhere, and he was sure the others felt the same way. A year ago, her parents had called on the A-Team to retrieve their daughter who had gone missing from the army, and that whole incident had been a fall down the rabbit hole at warp drive and on acid.

"Jean!" Hannibal couldn't believe it.

She ran over to the four commandos and surprised Hannibal by hugging him, then she moved down the line and also got reacquainted with Murdock, then Face, and then when she came to B.A. she looked him up and down, started laughing and said, "Oh Lordy, B.A., have you gotten _fat_!"

B.A. half scowled at her comment but when she threw her arms around him it quickly died and he couldn't resist smiling as he returned the hug; it had been a long time since they'd seen the girl and this was a real surprise. Jean pulled away from B.A. and found Murdock standing beside the mud sucker with a big grin on his face, waiting for another hug.

"Some things never change," Jean said as she hugged him again, "How've you guys been?"

"We're fine," Hannibal quickly recovered from his shock, "But what are _you_ doing out here? And what are you doing dressed like _that_?"

Jean looked down at her suit and laughed, "Well you won't believe it, but I got a job in a movie."

"You're right, I don't believe it," Face answered.

"You know the Kamikaze Racer movie they're making?" Jean asked Hannibal.

"That's a few lots down from where we're making the next Aquamaniac movie," Hannibal said, "I've heard of it, but I don't know anything about it."

"Well one of the stunt drivers was injured during shooting a few days ago," Jean said, "I've done stunts in a couple of other movies and they liked me for it so I got the job, and I was kind of running a test course, we start shooting tomorrow and this is similar to the closed course they'll have me doing. I just wanted to make sure I get everything right."

"Well it sure had us convinced," Face said, "Though incidentally, what happened to the other driver?"

"The car rolled with him and caught on fire," Jean answered.

"Ah," Face cynically replied, "And you _wanted_ this job?"

"It's something I can do," Jean said, "I can drive those crooked courses better than I can drive straight, and I'm not afraid to do it either."

"We're getting a bit ahead of ourselves," Hannibal chimed in, "What are you doing _here_? The last time we saw you was 3,000 miles away back in New York."

"Well I moved out of my parents' home and I wanted to get somewhere that I wouldn't freeze to death in the winter," Jean said, "And I thought I'd come out to Hollywood and see if I had any chance of breaking into the movies."

"Like this?" Face grabbed her helmet.

"Well it's work anyway," Jean shrugged her shoulders, "And this movie is a weird one, the Kamikaze Racer is the main character, but he's only in the film for about 20 minutes, and for 90% of that time he's in the car, and always has his helmet on, you never see his face."

"Oh," Murdock said with a nod, "Kind of like Darth Vader." He turned to Face, "They should never have shown what he looked like, you know?"

"So it's really a perfect kind of job because we never see what the Kamikaze Racer looks like, he's _all_ stuntmen. You have a star character without a star to play him."

"Is he the good guy or the villain?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know," Jean told him, "I don't have a script, all I have to do is drive the car."

"Well," Face tried to think of something to say, "It sounds like interesting work."

"How long have you been out here?" Hannibal asked.

"About three months," Jean answered.

"And how're your parents doing?" he asked.

"They're good, they're back home, they refused to leave New York," Jean answered.

"Where're you staying?" Face asked.

Jean started to point but forgot about that idea, "It's within the Hollywood geography and zoning, but the address ain't any place that any doctor to the stars is going to come and pay a house call."

"Just as well," Face commented, "They're all a bunch of quacks."

"I was just wrapping things up here for the day," Jean said, "If you're interested and if you have the time…"

"Oh we'd love to see your place," Hannibal answered, and he leaned over to B.A. and added, "See what she's gotten herself into." To which B.A. just kept his mouth shut and nodded. From the way she described it, Hannibal was expecting some three story walkup apartment with two rooms and very little furniture.

"Alright, I'll just get the car and this suit back to the studio before anybody notices they're gone and I'll show you the place," Jean told them.

"Let me see if I got this straight," Face said to her and pointed at the car, "Your guy drives around in this for the whole movie?"

"No, actually first he drives around in a Stingray but then he drives off a cliff and presumably burns to death in the wreckage, and the he reappears in this car, seems to be the running joke of the picture, this guy gets into one crash after another after another, but you can't kill him, he walks away from everything," Jean said.

"Boy that would sure come in handy to do that," Murdock noted, "Just walk away from all crashes and explosions completely unscathed. We could never get that lucky."

* * *

The van pulled up in the driveway behind Jean's Firebird convertible, and Hannibal about swallowed his cigar when he saw her house; he had expected some rundown apartment that was of the starving actor norm, and instead they saw a two story house that he could guess was of the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom variety, very well for someone who just started working in movies and wasn't even being paid a top actor's salary.

"Hey Hannibal, this place looks better than _yours_," Murdock commented.

"You rent a room here?" Hannibal asked as they got out of the van.

"No, I bought the place," Jean answered as she came up to them, "I'm a firm believer in owning my own property."

"Nothing wrong with that," Murdock said as he craned his neck back to look up at the second floor, "But ain't it kind of big for living in by yourself?"

"Well it's like you said, Murdock," Jean told him, "Turkey wasn't built in a day."

"How much did this place set you back?" Face asked.

"Enough," she answered.

Face made a small sound of understanding. He remembered that when they'd gotten Jean back to her parents, it had been with a returned deposit that she had paid them for their services, a sum of $19,000. And later that day they'd read a newspaper article about Colonel Lynch being arrested in connection to a robbery when police found $50,000 in his possession that he couldn't account for; and they realized she must've had more at her fingertips if she could afford to waste 50 grand on a frame job for Lynch. Apparently she'd had plenty on hand if she could afford to move out here and buy a place like this; it wasn't anything fancy, definitely nothing like the places he could scam, but it was a nice house that would be of a nice size for a growing family, better than anybody breaking into acting could ever get. The money had been ill gotten from the word go, but this seemed to prove that if such a thing as bad money did exist, it could still serve to do some good for some people in the world.

Jean pointed to the front door and said, "It's unlocked, you can go in and see the place, I've got to get some things out of the car and I'll be right with you."

Hannibal opened the door and Face and B.A. followed him in, but Murdock followed Jean over to the car and talked to her.

"I got your letters, sorry I haven't been able to write back but after a little incident at the V.A. they wouldn't let me have anything to write with, thought the pens were all too sharp."

"I'm just glad you got them," Jean said as she pulled two sacks off the floor in the backseat, "I _hoped_ it would work, saying I got your address from a pen pal program I found on the back of a magazine in between the prisoners and the locals of Samoa. But it's just as well you didn't because I mailed all of them using my parents' address back home so then if you _had_ written me they would've had to forward them to me 3,000 miles roundtrip to a couple cities away from the hospital."

"Yeah, of course you know the doctors don't trust us to open our own letters, they like to read them first, so I get why you didn't say you'd moved out here," Murdock told her.

"I'll tell you, Murdock, it never occurred to me that by moving out to Los Angeles that I might see you guys again," she said, and she looked around and noticed something seemed a little off and she asked, "Hey Murdock, where's Billy?"

His gaze moved down to the dirt driveway and he kicked at a pebble and explained, "Well Billy…he ain't with me anymore."

"He died?" Jean asked.

Murdock looked back up at her and said, "Oh no, he's alright…you see, a few months ago we had a big job for a rich family whose teenaged daughter had gone to Europe as part of a foreign exchange program and she was kidnapped. So we had to fly out to Italy, but on the way we had some trouble and had to make an emergency landing in Holland. Well, while we were trying to get another plane, Billy and I met some of the local kids, and they all loved Billy, and…I decided to give Billy to the children of Holland, he's probably safer there with them than off on missions with me all the time anyway." He reached his hand behind his head as he told her, "I get postcards from him from time to time though, he's doing alright over there."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jean told him, "For what it's worth you know I never liked him much, but I know how important he is to you."

Murdock nodded sadly, but quickly recovered and said, "Well, let's go check out this shack you call a home."

Jean laughed and followed him up to the front porch and inside the house.

* * *

Hannibal stood in the middle of the dining room with an unlit cigar in his mouth as he let his eyes roam around and look at everything in the room, including the ceiling. The place was furnished but not crowded with much of anything; something seemed off about the way it was all put together and Hannibal thought he knew what it was. It looked like a house for a large family but there wasn't one here, there was only Jean, and yet there was a long table in the room with six chairs, and in the living room there was one large couch, one smaller couch, two recliners and a rocking chair. Face, being well acquainted with the finer things in life, couldn't help commenting cynically, "Nice décor here, somewhere of a cross between Hee Haw, and a haunted house."

The sound of the front door slamming got their attention and it was followed by Jean's comment, "That's what drew me to the place, it looks like me." She had a big sarcastic grin on her face as she looked at him. She set the groceries down on the table and said, "So what've you guys been up to all this time? Still on the run from Lynch?"

"No," Hannibal answered as he reached into his pocket for a lighter, "He was replaced by someone else a while back, a Colonel Roderick Decker, I know him well and wish I didn't."

"Is he as bad as Lynch?" Jean asked.

"Worse," Face answered.

Hannibal wasn't quite so pessimistic, "He's got a _few_ more brains than Lynch has, I'll give him that one, but he better not let it go to his head. He'll never catch us anymore than Lynch ever could."

"Of course," Jean told him, "You know if there's anything I can do to help, I will…but let's just say for argument sake, this Decker guy finds out that you've been here…how will I know him if I see him?"

"Oh you couldn't miss him," Murdock told her, "This guy looks like he just crawled out of Rambo."

"And like Lynch," Face told her, "When he comes he'll be bringing the whole army with him, about 50 MPs armed to the teeth."

"They never learn any new tricks, do they?" Jean asked, "Of course this _could_ be a two-way street…" she pointed out the window to the other houses on the block, "This is a dead end part of town, most of the houses around here are empty, if you guys ever needed to lay low you could probably hide out here for a while and nobody would find you, nobody ever comes here anyway."

"Have you ever considered living in Montana?" Face asked her jokingly.

She met his sarcastic smirk with one of her own and told him, "I live alone because I like it, I have no use for neighbors, never have. But I like being near where the action is."

"And for that you _left_ New York?" Murdock asked.

"Well we'll certainly consider it," Hannibal told her, "Actually though, it's funny because we're not far from my place."

"Your place?" Jean repeated, "What's it like?"

B.A. snorted and told her, "It's a _real_ dump."

"I'll tell you what," Hannibal said to her, "I'm having the others over tomorrow night, why don't you come then and check it out for yourself?"

"Sure, might be fun," Jean said.

* * *

It wouldn't have made much sense, even by Murdock's standards, to return Murdock to the V.A. tonight just to break him out again tomorrow night so when Face went back to his most recently scammed penthouse for the night, he took the pilot with him. Murdock made a big show of 'ooh'-ing and 'aah'-ing at everything and touching anything that would probably break, and laughing at Face's startled expressions. He had also insisted on cooking dinner and that made Face a little nervous as well, especially when Murdock threw him out of his own kitchen and wouldn't let him watch while the pilot cooked. But they managed to get through dinner without any incident and then they settled on the couch to watch TV. Halfway through the fight that was on, Murdock turned to Face and said, "You know something, Facey?"

"What is it, Murdock?"

"I just can't believe it."

Face looked at him, "Believe what?"

"The Saint, I never thought we'd see her again, least of all _here_," Murdock said.

Face nodded, "It was one hell of a way to get reacquainted, I'll say that."

Murdock laughed, "But you know, I guess she found the perfect place to work. Think about it, after everything that she went through with us," he counted them off on his fingers, "High speed chases with the MPs, being thrown out of the van and falling on a barbed wire fence, opening fire from helicopters, after all that, stunt work probably _is_ her calling."

"Maybe so," Face agreed, "Still, you'd think after being shot in the chest and nearly dying, that she would pick a safer line of work."

Murdock looked at him like the cat that had the canary tickling the inside of his mouth and he said, "Like _we_ did?"

They both had a good laugh at that one.

"Hey Face, I just got an idea," Murdock said, "Why don't _we_ get into the movies as stuntmen? Think about it, we've got all the experience, we know all about racing and flying and explosions and fighting, they never see your face, and we could probably work with Hannibal too."

"I don't know about that, Murdock," Face shook his head, "Sure, they never see your face, but suppose something went wrong during one of the stunts?" He gripped his jaw in his hand and said, "If anything would happen to this face, my scamming days are over and you know how much Hannibal's plans rely on that."

Murdock scowled and kicked his feet up on the coffee table and grumbled, "Still might be fun."

* * *

When it got late, they decided it was time to turn in. The penthouse came with three bedrooms but for some reason, Murdock followed Face into his. He took his suitcase into the bathroom and came out a short while later dressed in his pajamas and made himself at home in the right side of the bed. Face also changed for the night and got in on the left side and probably would've been able to fall asleep very quickly, except he could hear the springs creaking on the other side of the bed as Murdock aimlessly bobbed up and down against the mattress.

"Murdock, what're you doing?" he asked.

"Just thinking," he answered.

Face forced his eyes open and turned on his side to ask, "What about?"

"Going back," Murdock said, and Face knew he was talking about the V.A.

"I'm sorry, Murdock," he said. He knew that despite all the strings Murdock managed to pull at the hospital to get anything he wanted, that he really did not prefer staying there, and he couldn't blame Murdock for it.

"Well," Murdock turned on his side to see him, "At least I get to stay out tomorrow, get one more day before I go back."

Face didn't press the subject, he and Murdock had already had this conversation before.

"_If you could prove to the doctors you're sane, then they'd let you out and you wouldn't have to go back."_

"_But I'm not sane, Facey, you know that, I am the original cuckoo bird! But I'm not insane enough to want to stay in that hospital room all the time either. I do like some of the doctors, and the nurses that check on me, and the other patients, but I just don't like it being there all the time."_

"_I know that."_

"_But the world is full of insane people walking around outside free, why can't I be one of those?"_

"_I don't know."_ He wished that he'd had the answer but he just couldn't come up with one.

Of course he could guess why Murdock was acting like this all of a sudden; part of it was because Billy was gone and Murdock pretended to be happy but it was obvious he was still mourning the loss. That dog was his only friend when he got locked back up in the V.A., and now Billy wasn't there anymore, no wonder he was dreading going back again.

But there was another side to it, another reason why he was fighting against it now; none of them were getting any younger, and even though it wasn't really possible for any of them to settle down and become family men, Murdock had the best opportunity of them all since the military wasn't actually hunting for him. He was not considered a threat, but that only remained as long as the whole world knew him to be insane; if the doctors _would_ ever declare Murdock sane, then the army would really press on him, trying to get answers out of him. It was only because they truly believed Murdock was dangerously insane that they backed off as much as they did; especially when they went to speak to him and he started throwing out his trigger words like ammonia, then they knew to get out of there. Unfortunately it was a perfect cover for Murdock, regardless of just how crazy he was or was not, and it had also become his perfect trap because there seemed to be no way out for him.

"Don't worry, Murdock, I'll figure something out," Face told him, "I'll be able to get you out again soon."

"I appreciate that, Face, but if you can't, what would also be good would be if you'd come and stay the night sometime," Murdock said, "I wouldn't mind staying so much if I could have some company from time to time."

"Sure, Murdock," Face said, "I'll come up and see you sometime."

Murdock laughed and said in a low, nasal voice that Face thought was supposed to be his impression of W.C. Fields, "Why thank you, my little chickadee."

* * *

No rest for the wicked. They'd only been home from the last mission one day when they found out somebody else was looking to hire the A-Team. The word going through the underground was that some guy named John Murtaugh wanted to hire the team to deal with some gangsters that were running his small business into the ground and threatening to do the same with him and his family if they didn't get out of town. It sounded like any one of a hundred other missions they'd worked, but there were still the precautions to take, the wild goose chases to lead the client on, to make sure that they were legitimate and not an army setup. So, through the same underground circuit they had put the word out to their would-be client to meet somebody at this corner of this alley at this time of night and wait for somebody to make contact.

The fact that they were in for a terrible storm that night would play a large part in determining if this was real or not. Sure, it wouldn't be anything for one of Decker's boys to spend the night in the pouring down rain if it meant nailing Hannibal Smith once and for all, but there were many others who had come this same way over the years who didn't carry military records and who also would not stick around to endure the storm, all for the sake of meeting another contact to send them to another address for another chance meeting.

While it was true that Hannibal, cleverly disguised as a filthy, half drunken bum, would be the only person Murtaugh would make contact with, the others waited close by just incase this would turn out to be an ambush. Face waited around one corner with one rifle, Murdock around the other corner with another, and B.A. in the van positioned so he could catch the high sign from Face if there was any trouble. The sky was dark but no rain fell, only threatened to, and after a couple of hours of letting the man wait around in the dark alley, Hannibal made his skid row cameo, passing by Murtaugh, panhandling, and despite everything, the man remained civil and gave Hannibal a $20 bill.

"God bless you kind sir," he slurred as he staggered off into the night, unknown to Murtaugh that when he took the money he replaced it by slipping a note into the man's hand, telling him to go see Mr. Lee tomorrow morning at 10.

After that, Hannibal disappeared around the corner and signaled for Face and Murdock to join him at the van; they got in and Hannibal started peeling off his disguise one piece at a time.

"Well I'd say Mr. Murtaugh passed the first round with flying colors," Hannibal said, "Tomorrow we'll see what he has to say to our old pal, Mr. Lee."

B.A. turned on the van's headlights and drove them out of there and they headed back for Hannibal's place.

"I don't know, Hannibal," Face said, "He might be able to pass your tests but there's still something about this job that I don't like."

"You're always saying that anymore, Face," Hannibal told him, "When was the last time we took a case that you _did_ like?"

"Faceman we are the court of last resort for many a peoples," Murdock said in an accent that sounded like he'd got his wires crossed between German and French, "They give us their tired, the poor, the huddled masses that nobody else wants, we must do what we must do for our own kind, because someday we may call upon them to repay the favor, no?"

Face's response was knocked out of him when B.A. hit the brakes and they all slammed forward again.

"What is it now, B.A.?" Hannibal asked.

"Look, man!" B.A. pointed to something lying in the road ahead of them.

"What is that?" Face asked.

The van's headlights shone on something laying 20 feet ahead of them in the middle of the road; at first glance it was impossible to tell what it was, but then it hit the commandos that it was a sheet covering something that was the right shape and size of a human body.

"Let's go check it out, B.A. keep those headlights on," Hannibal said as he grabbed one of the rifles. He didn't think it was a trap but he didn't believe in taking chances either.

The four men got out of the van and went over to the thing in the road; the headlights shone on it so they could see it clearly, and they watched with every step they took to see if the thing under the sheet moved, if it looked like a person breathing, but there was no visible movement. Hannibal kept the rifle in one hand and knelt down near the head of the sheet and with his other hand he grabbed the top of the sheet, and pulled it down, and he felt the blood drain out of his face.

"It's Jean!"

Yes, it was Jean. Her eyes closed, her skin pale, her clothes gone, her face bruised and scraped and partially dried blood smeared over her cheek; her body lay perfectly straight and gave great resemblance to one lying on a slab in the morgue. Hannibal jerked his glove off and felt for the pulse in her neck.

"She's alive," he let out a sharp exhale of relief, then wrapped the sheet around her body and moved to pick her up, "Come on, we'll take her to the hospital."

Usually when one of them got hurt, they held off as long as possible on going to a hospital and risking being identified and reported to the army, but when someone else was involved they wouldn't take that chance. All four of them were still haunted by the scene from a year ago when Jean was shot and nearly bled to death on the helicopter ride to the hospital. It was about the only time that the person they were hired to rescue truly almost died on their watch; usually they were able to get the hostages out of the line of fire and off to the side, and they would take over in the battle.

It was normal for something to happen to one of them, they'd all been shot at, some of them actually hit, they always got beat up in fights and had to jump out of planes and made rough landings, they were used to it all. But that was them, it was what they did for a living, not innocent civilians, not her. And now something had happened to her again, but what, and why, and who was responsible? Those were the questions they'd have to wait to find the answers to. They got Jean loaded up in the back of the van and Hannibal told B.A. to floor it to the hospital.


	2. Chapter 2

Jean woke up right after the van started moving, and she was disoriented at first and started fighting against the hands that she felt around her.

"Calm down, kid, hold still," Hannibal told her as he tried to restrain her.

"'annibal?" the single word escaped her quietly and only half audible.

"That's right kid, it's us," he told her, trying to keep her calm so she didn't panic and hurt herself, "We're all here, we're taking you to the hospital."

"Don't need a hospital," she said as she looked up at him, "Just take me home…take me home, Hannibal!"

The fact that she was conscious, knew where she was, and had the strength to yell at them was a tremendous relief to Hannibal; enough so that he was convinced that a hospital wouldn't be necessary, or at least could be postponed for a while. If they didn't have to take her in, they would all be relieved, they'd taken a large enough risk last time to stay in without being identified or reported, but in Los Angeles where Decker was constantly searching for them, they knew they would be sitting ducks, and with a wounded civilian in tow that was no position to be in. They were closer to Hannibal's place than Jean's so Hannibal told B.A. to take them there instead. He turned to Jean and saw she was struggling to stay awake, and he couldn't help making a poor joke, "Well, you wanted to see my place, I guess now you're going to." Then he became more serious and he asked her, "How're you feeling, kid?"

"I'm fine," Jean pushed his hands away and rubbed her eyes, "I'm fine, what's the big deal?"

"Jean, do you know what happened to you?" Hannibal asked her as he carefully stroked through her hair.

"Yeah," she got out in a low groan and closed her eyes again.

They didn't say anything for the rest of the drive, but Hannibal and Face were both thinking of the same thing; they had noticed that the road where they found Jean was empty, no cars, no people, no traffic whatsoever, and they'd also noticed that Jean's car was nowhere to be found either, or her clothes for that matter, and they couldn't help wondering then _how_ she came to be there, and _why,_ and _who_ was responsible for it. They also wondered if she was deliberately left in the street for them to find, and if that was the case, who had been watching them?

When they got to Hannibal's apartment, B.A. went around to the back of the van and carefully picked Jean up and carried her up the stairs with Hannibal leading the way, throwing the doors open and the lights on. He wanted to examine Jean to see how bad the damage was and he told B.A. to take her into the kitchen since he'd recently changed the bulbs in there and it was one of the brightest rooms in the apartment. B.A. did and they laid Jean out on the kitchen table and Hannibal turned on the lights in the ceiling fan so they shone directly down on her.

Jean still fought with them and slapped their hands away and insisted it wasn't anything serious. Naturally she wouldn't let Hannibal look under the sheet, so he started by checking out the wounds on her face while she sat up and explained what had happened. She explained that three men had jumped her earlier in the night and took turns beating on her, mainly going for her face for some reason, though she got an overall pounding as well.

"It was an ugly sight, _no_ place for women," she joked, "Oh they were _real_ cute, the big tough men ganging up on one person and beating the daylights out of me, and _then_, when they got done pounding on me, they threw away my shoes and threw away my clothes, and I reckon they thought they'd given me a good chance to work my way back home, and they took off. I think I got about four blocks before I finally collapsed…sometime later one of them came back and threw the sheet over me, I guess he thought I was dead."

"Do you have any idea who they were?" Hannibal asked as he cleaned the cut on her cheek with a rag doused in peroxide.

"Couldn't tell you _who_, but I'd remember their faces if I saw them again if that's what you're asking," she said.

"Alright, let's try something a little easier, do you know _why_ they attacked you?" Hannibal asked.

"I can guess," she replied, "Where you found me tonight, that's about five blocks away from a cemetery, and I've been spending my nights kind of patrolling the area."

"For what?" Face asked, "Werewolves?"

"Grave robbers," Jean looked out the corner of her eye to see him since Hannibal wouldn't let her turn her head, "You'd think it was Burke and Hare all over again, but somebody's been getting into the cemetery at night, digging up some of the more recent residents, and making off with them, where to and for what reason nobody knows. And I'm sure that the guys that jumped me were some of them because it was right outside the gates that they got me."

"And they say New York is where all the crazy people live," Murdock said.

"Maybe we ought to ship you there one-way, fool," B.A. commented.

"You promise?" Murdock asked, "Airmail naturally?"

"Shut up, fool," B.A. warned him, and Murdock slowly backed away.

"How exactly did _you_ get the job of zombie guard?" Face asked her, "You know anybody buried there?"

"No," Jean turned her head away but Hannibal pulled it back to continue cleaning the cuts along her bottom jaw.

"These guys weren't wearing rings, were they?" Hannibal asked as he noticed the odd shapes the cuts were.

"I don't remember," she said, "All I know is it _hurt_. Anyway, the word came out a few days ago, one of the caretakers found a new grave had been disturbed and they found out the body was stolen out of it. Then the rain came and several other graves got sinkholes all of a sudden."

"They took the coffins too?" Murdock asked.

"Some of the cheaper ones had the lids broken off of them and the shift caused the dirt to fall in, I don't have _any_ idea what it's all about but I want to catch the guys responsible and end it all. This may be California but this stuff is too weird even by _my_ standards."

"We might have to look into that matter," Hannibal finished scrubbing the blood off of her face and told her, "That's as best as I can do if you insist on being stubborn, but I'd feel a lot better if you'd let us take you to a doctor."

"Oh Hannibal, I don't need a doctor," Jean said as she swung her legs over the side of the table and stood up, "I don't…" her legs swiveled and she started to fall but they each reached out to grab her and supported her as she regained her footing.

"Maybe not," Hannibal replied, "But you're going to stay here tonight, and it might not be a bad idea to put you to bed now before you fall down and crack your head open."

And to make sure he got the point across, he grabbed Jean and picked her up and carried her out of the kitchen, through the living room and into the bedroom.

"Murdock, look at this!" Jean said cynically, "Tarzan, the white Ape strikes again, stalking the wild jungles of Zanzibar for the pretty young native girls to take captive, so what the hell he wants with me I'll never know." Hannibal readjusted his hold so she was slung over his shoulder and she commented, "Tell me, Hannibal, did you ever consider becoming a fireman?"

"I always considered the profession to be a tad boring," Hannibal replied as he headed towards the bedroom.

Face hit the lights as they went into Hannibal's room and he carried her over to the bed and awkwardly kept hold of her with one arm as he pulled the covers back with the other and set her down on it.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Face asked Jean as they stood around the bed and made sure she was comfortable, fluffed the pillows behind her head and got her tucked in for the night. Also they thought covering the poor girl might spare some of her dignity more than just the sheet she was wrapped in would.

"I'm fine," Jean answered, but it didn't sound anymore convincing now than it had the first time, "Hey, wait a minute!"

"What is it?" they asked.

Jean looked to Hannibal and asked him, "If I'm staying _here_, where are _you_ going to be spending the night?"

"We'll be out in the living room," Hannibal answered with a jerk of his thumb back towards the door.

"Ain't that going to be kind of crowded?" Jean asked him.

"We'll manage," Hannibal told her, "That's a hide-a-bed couch out there."

"Suit yourself," Jean said as she settled back against the pillows, "But I feel like Snow White stealing Dopey, Sneezy and Happy's beds."

"Well don't you worry about us," Murdock told her, "We can sleep anywhere, I can even sleep standing up…in fact I'll bet you I can even sleep with my eyes open."

"You already left your head open and let your brain fly out, fool," B.A. replied. But he turned and smiled at Jean and told her, "We'll be fine, mama, you just get some rest and feel better."

"Thanks, B.A., but I'm alright, really," Jean tried to assure them.

"Yeah well, it's late so we'll get out of your hair and let you rest," Hannibal told her, for some reason he couldn't resist stroking his hand over the top of her head once more. One by one the men turned and headed for the door, Face and Murdock were the last ones out. Jean raised herself up and quietly called over to Murdock and asked him, "Would you mind staying here for a minute?"

"Sure, I wasn't going anywhere," Murdock answered as he closed the door right behind Face, and returned over by the bed, "How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine," she answered, "I'm more embarrassed than anything."

Murdock resumed his sympathetic self that he had been with her a year ago when they were alone and he took her hand in his and said with a heavy southern accent, "Aw honey, ain't nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I guess I should be grateful that ol' Burke came back with the burial shroud or it could've been a lot worse," she said.

Murdock nuzzled his face against her hand like he was a dog and told her, "Of course you realize when we find these guys, I'm going to have to tear them to pieces. Nobody does this to one of my friends and gets away with it."

"Thanks, Murdock, but I've got something better in mind for them," Jean told him and pointed to her temple, "You're not the only devious mind around here you know."

Murdock noticed how Jean kept the sheet and the bedspread pulled up high over her chest and he suspected that it wasn't just to cover herself, it was to hide those scars. The scars that they had not seen, but he knew that she had them, you couldn't get shot with .50 caliber slugs and _not_ have a scar. It had been a year, they would've had time to pale, but they would still always be there. It was generally _not_ a mark that women wore, especially women in the middle of civilized USA, but she did.

Part of him didn't dare ask, but the other part of him thought that he could, for some reason Jean trusted him more than she did anyone else on the Team, they had been through hell and back together a year ago; they had escaped the fiery pits of death together when they narrowly escaped a building firebombed by a group of terrorists, and he had been present during the exorcism of her own personal demon, Brutus, a persona she had created within herself as a defense mechanism to survive, and he in turn was slowly killing her. Murdock knew that the others didn't believe the kinds of things he did, and he didn't dwell on why they couldn't, he just knew that they didn't always see the things he did, and they wouldn't understand them, he'd tried telling them before. It wasn't that they didn't listen, but they just couldn't believe for themselves what they couldn't see with their own eyes, especially B.A.; but he had seen Brutus leave Jean's body that night in the hospital, Brutus may not have been an actual person but he was just as real as she was, or as any of them were.

Nobody else knew about what had happened that night; that was something that the two of them had always kept between themselves, and he knew she preferred it that way. It was just as well because he knew, just like everything else, the others simply wouldn't understand it; he felt sorry for them, they weren't in tune to these kinds of things like he and Jean were, they were among a lucky few, though there were plenty of times that the luck seemed nothing short of rotten, just like now. However, he also felt that he had a right to ask her, because B.A. had been there to see it for himself as he stayed in the operating room during the whole surgery and watched everything the doctors did, he saw those scars when they were freshly made.

No, he wouldn't, he couldn't, she had been through enough already, he wouldn't put her through anymore humiliation than she had been, she'd had her fill of that for the night and probably for the rest of her life. He had no right to ask her, and yet…he looked back at Jean, she knew him, knew that he was trustworthy, and he knew that she trusted him with her life, something that only three other people in the whole world did; it was the rarest of honors to have somebody trust him so much. So what would happen now if he did ask? She trusted him so much, but so did Hannibal and Face and B.A., and if he would've asked any one of them, they most likely wouldn't mind. But he knew it would be different with her, but then again, how different _would_ it be? The reason the Team trusted each other so much was because they had learned to be a team and depend on each other for survival back in 'Nam; and Hannibal had said it himself, what they went through a year ago had been a war as well, and Jean had been in the middle of that war, and he had gone through the last minefield with her in the hospital. The worst that could happen if he asked her now would be she would try to kill him, and he couldn't blame her for that if she did, but he knew he would have no peace of mind until he knew either way. He prepared for the worst, hoped for the best, he swallowed the breath in him, marched back over to the bed and asked Jean, with his finger pointing and saying more than he actually could, "Could I…"

Jean looked down and realized what he meant and she slowly nodded, and lowered the sheet so he could see the scars. Very pale indeed, to somebody who didn't know, they probably wouldn't notice or at least know what they were, but of course she could see them as plainly as if they were fresh, because she had to live with them every day, had to see them every time she got up in the morning. No words were exchanged between them, there clearly were none and there was no need for any; each understood the other very well by now. Still, as with all things between friends, Murdock wanted her to be aware that this wasn't all one sided, even though she already knew that; so as she pulled the sheet back up, he took off his jacket and took off his red flannel shirt and lifted up his T-shirt and took it off to show her a scar on his shoulder from where he had been shot. His was a bit more recent than hers was, and she could see that, though the caliber for his had been much smaller.

"When…" she started to ask.

"A few months ago," he answered. He left his shirt off for a while, something he rarely did, so she wouldn't feel that she was the only one currently exposed. He felt he had to say something else or the maddening silence would consume them both, "Your doctors actually okayed you becoming a stuntman?"

"Yeah sure, of course you know how that works," Jean said, "All you have to do to pass an insurance exam is put on the gown and breathe and you're covered by the studio's insurance. Besides, it's been about a year, if that ain't time enough to recover, then there ain't ever going to be enough time."

They didn't talk much after that, Murdock could tell Jean wouldn't be able to stay awake for much longer. Still, while the opportunity was hot he struck again and turned around to show Jean a few other scars he'd gotten over the years from being somebody's target practice. These were especially pale, but he knew where they all were, and they all stuck out to him as clearly as if they were brand new, that's just the way scars were; the whole world could say they weren't that bad and you could hardly notice them, but if you wore them you not only noticed them, it was like having a neon arrow pointed at every part of your body that had ever been marked. And he knew that she knew that _very_ well, just like he did.

"Those from Vietnam?" she asked.

"No," he answered, "I got these when I worked for the CIA."

Jean blinked and tilted her head at him, "You worked for the CIA?"

"Twice," he answered, "Contrary to popular belief they _do _know a good man for the job when they see one."

"What did you do for them?" Jean asked.

Murdock put a finger to his lips and went 'shhhh', and said, "Highly confidential, nobody knows about that."

Jean pointed to the door and asked, "Not even the others?"

Murdock shook his head, "I must have _some _secrets after all," he told her in a voice that sounded like a cartoon spy, then his voice became slightly more serious and he added, "If the others were able to find out everything there is to know about me, they might stop loving me." He smirked at her to let her in on the joke.

Jean weakly smiled in return, after a few minutes she started to fall asleep and Murdock decided to leave her alone. He put his shirts back on, but instead of taking his jacket with him, he draped it over Jean to cover her before drawing the covers up on her again. It probably should've occurred to one of them to get some of Hannibal's clothes out of the closet so she'd have something to wear, but they hadn't and now there wouldn't be any need for that until tomorrow morning when she woke up. He quietly closed the door behind him and saw that only B.A. was in the living room, sitting on the couch watching the TV with the volume turned down so Jean wouldn't wake up.

"Where're Hannibal and Faceman?" Murdock asked.

"They went to check out the cemetery and to get some clothes from her place," B.A. said.

"Well that's ridiculous, Hannibal can't wear her clothes, he's too big for them," Murdock said.

"Be quiet, fool," B.A. warned him, then asked, "How is she?"

"Asleep," Murdock answered as he leaned against the back of the couch, "I think she'll be alright, though."

"Of course she will, sucker, she's tough," B.A. tilted his head back to see Murdock, "God broke the mold when He made her, and she was built to last."

"I just don't get it, B.A.," Murdock said as he walked over to the chair and slumped down in it, "Why would they do it? Why would anybody want to hurt her? What did she ever do to anybody?"

B.A. craned his head to the side to look at Murdock with an 'are you serious, fool?' look, but he knew what Murdock meant. "Something I got to thinking about, you remember when we first met her and she went on about she'd been beaten up before, but she never told us who did it."

Murdock thought he knew what B.A. was getting at, "You think it could be the same people?"

"I doubt it, but I think when she wakes up tomorrow, we ought to see about getting some more answers out of her," B.A. replied.

"Oh man," Murdock thought of something else, "I hate to be the one to tell her parents about this one."

B.A. didn't argue with him, Jean may have been 24 years old and 3,000 miles from her parents, but somebody hurt their little girl and it was still their right as her parents to know about it, even if it wasn't serious and even if there wasn't anything that they could do about it. B.A. knew from experience with his own mama, parents worried too much as it was, it was even worse when they were left in the dark about things rather than flat out told about them in the first place.

"How bad you think she's really hurting?" B.A. asked.

"I think she took most of it to the face and she seems to have lucked out there because the damage appears to be minor," Murdock said, "She won't let anybody examine her but I really don't think she's trying to hide anything there. You know, if we didn't know her and she wasn't our friend, it would be very easy to look at this and say it's a matter for the police, instead of us."

B.A. nodded, "Yup, but we do, she is and it ain't, and somebody gonna pay for this, somebody _else_ gonna be hurting _real_ bad when I get done with them."

Murdock just sat in the chair beside him and nodded in agreement.

* * *

When Face and Hannibal returned later, Hannibal had a brown paper sack with a change of Jean's clothes under his arm, and a report that they found Jean's car a few blocks away from the cemetery, and the clothes she had apparently been wearing at the time she was attacked, scattered in all directions. Face drove her car back to her house and they put it in the garage, and they also checked out the house to make sure nobody was there waiting for Jean and that nobody had set any booby traps for when she came home. A search of the house had turned up nothing there, but, what Hannibal hadn't told the others was what he _had_ found. Upon entering Jean's bedroom he first moved for the duffle bag on her bed figuring she probably had a quick change of clothes handy there, and she did; he pulled out a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a change of her underwear, another pair of sneakers, and at the bottom he had pulled out something green and rolled up into a bundle.

A small lump had formed in his throat and he felt his heart swelling with pride and his eyes glowing with memory as he unfolded the army jacket they have given Jean the night before returning her and her parents home. Her name was stitched over one breast pocket, and the rank Corporal on the other, both messily done since he had left the stitching to Face; and on the left breast side was his Purple Heart, B.A.'s Army Medal, Face's Korea Medal, and Murdock's Air Medal. Of course he had figured that she would keep it but the sight of it still surprised him; he felt like a father whose son had held onto his prized hunting knife for 20 years. On that fateful night, Jean had been declared an honorary corporal by him and decorated by all four of them, now he felt like the honored one; to know that this remained, that this small piece of them still remained with her, it left him beyond words. But that had made it all the harder to face what was going on here now; somebody had assaulted her and left her for dead and they had to find out who and why and deal with the people responsible.

"How's she doing?" he asked the others.

"Last time I checked, she was asleep," Murdock answered as he and B.A. watched the fight on TV.

"I'll go take a quick look," Hannibal said as he dropped the bag on the coffee table and went over to the bedroom.

As the door slowly opened, the room that had previously been pitch dark was illuminated only by the traveling light from the living room. Jean was laying in bed and she wasn't moving, but Hannibal had an idea she wasn't asleep; and it was confirmed when, just as he was about to close the door, he saw Jean turn over and start to sit up.

"Didn't mean to wake you, kid," he whispered as he stepped into the room and shut the door, leaving it open only by a couple of inches, and went over to the bed, "How're you feeling?"

"I'm alright," she answered, "Just can't sleep."

"You need anything?" he asked.

Even in the dark he could see her shaking her head. "I appreciate your concern, Hannibal, but I really don't have to stay here."

"Maybe not, but I'd feel better if you did, I want to keep my eye on you, for the night anyway."

Jean chuckled and commented, "I'd almost swear you were my father."

"Well," he couldn't help smiling at that remark, "I don't have any kids, but you're getting off lucky, because if I did have a daughter, and somebody did to her what they did to you, I would kill them."

"Of course you would," Jean tiredly agreed, "That's the code of the fathers, but you're _not_ my father, Hannibal, and you're not going to do that…_I_ am."

Hannibal chuckled in return and stroked the top of her head, "Alright kid, try and get some rest, we'll see how you're doing in the morning."

Jean turned over on her side for a more comfortable position; Hannibal readjusted the covers over her and walked out of the room. In the living room the sleeping arrangements were quickly being decided upon; B.A. was going to take the hide-a-bed, Hannibal would sleep in the chair, and Murdock and Face were going to bunk down on a couple of cots Hannibal kept on hand for when company stayed the night. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements in the world but they had done with far worse in their times, and besides, it was only for one night.

* * *

Early the next morning, Face had been the first one up and also decided to be the first one to go into Hannibal's bedroom to see if Jean was up, and she was, and she was _not_ in a good mood. He didn't know what had happened during the night, but Jean had woken up mean and ready to lash out at somebody, which he supposed was only understandable but he still didn't get why he had to be the bull's eye. As soon as he stepped in she was reaching for things on the nightstand to throw at him.

"Go away, Face," she told him, "I don't want to see anybody this morning."

"Not even Murdock?" he asked, knowing even if she didn't want to see him, or Hannibal, or B.A., she _would_ want to see Murdock; he didn't know why or what it was but there was something that made the two of them click.

"I _especially_ don't want to see Murdock," she replied as she turned over on her side away from him.

Especially? What was that supposed to mean? Face pondered on that as he slowly inched back to the door and closed it behind him. A moment later the door opened again and Hannibal started to come in just in time to see Jean pick up the alarm clock off his nightstand and she told him, "I said get out!" and hurled it at his head. He pulled the door closed just in time so the clock missed its target, then he stepped into the room and told her, "You can do better than that, you missed me by a mile."

"What do you want?" Jean asked him.

Hannibal showed her the paper bag he was toting, "I went by your place and picked you up a change of clothes."

"Oh, thanks," Jean seemed to come down off her mean streak and was back in nice mode again, or as nice as she could get anyway. "I'll be out of your hair in a minute, Hannibal, I just need to get up and…"

"Jean," Hannibal's voice wasn't particularly firm but it was enough to make her stop and get her attention, she looked up at him as he told her, "If you need _any_ kind of help, we'll get it for you, you know that, right?"

"I do, and I appreciate it, but I'm alright, Hannibal," she said as she pushed back the covers and kept a grip on her sheet as she started to get up, "Do you mind if I use your shower?"

"Go ahead," he nodded his head towards the bathroom door, and turned to leave.

"Well?" Face asked from where he sat on the newly remade couch that Murdock was stuffing the cushions back onto.

Hannibal shrugged and said, "She seems to be doing alright."

That statement seemed to be premature when a few minutes later they could hear Jean yelling from the bathroom. It didn't sound like anything urgent, rather it sounded like when a guy woke up after a night of heavy drinking and realized somebody put makeup on him to look like his mother. All the same, Murdock took off for the bathroom, Face started to follow after him but Hannibal grabbed him and told him, "Let him go."

Murdock went over to the bathroom door and put his ear against it and all was suddenly quiet; he rapped on the door and called in, "Saint, you okay?"

"Come on in, Murdock," she answered.

He went in and stopped in the doorway as he realized what it was. There was an old running joke that men were so oblivious to anything involving their wives' appearances that they wouldn't notice if she was wearing a gas mask, let alone if they did something new with their hair. Well this might just lend merit to that thought; Jean stood in front of the mirror on the medicine cabinet and looked at Murdock, and he saw the hair on one side of her head came down almost to her shoulder, and the other side had been hacked off clear up to the back of her head. No doubt this also had been part of her assault the previous night, and none of them had noticed it at the time, not even Jean herself. She was wrapped in one of Hannibal's towels and her skin was wet, apparently she'd already been in the shower when she realized something wasn't quite right and came out to meet her reflection to verify it.

"It's a good thing I'm a stuntman," Jean told him as she looked back at her reflection, "With the helmet they'll never have to see this."

Murdock went over to her and reached his hand out and touched her hair where it had been butchered and he tried to be comforting as he said, "It won't be so bad, you can get it evened out."

"I know it's going to grow back, Murdock, that's not the point," she said, "This is ridiculous."

"Hey if it's ridiculous, you came to the right person," he told her, "Maybe I can help you."

"What'd you have in mind?" she asked.

* * *

Face consulted his watch again and saw it was 30 minutes since Murdock had then gone into the bathroom to see what was wrong with Jean. Then he had come out after about five minutes, and after another five, went back in again and he hadn't come back out since, and without a word of what was going on. What could possibly be going on in there that would take that long? Hannibal had gone out to pick up breakfast for everybody and B.A. had gone down to check out the van and make sure nobody had tried anything with it during the night. Hannibal was the first one to return and a few minutes after he did, the bathroom door opened and Jean stepped out and said, "If this is somebody's idea of a joke, I'm not laughing."

Face was the first one to see, and when he did, he was too stunned to say anything, he just reached behind him and elbowed Hannibal, who turned around and was also stunned by what he saw. Jean was dressed in the clothes that Hannibal had brought, and her hair had been buzzed down to a bare minimum just short of looking like an army cut, save for the one patch down the middle that now stood up in a mohawk. Hannibal felt his bottom jaw drop and his cigar drop out of his mouth as he took a step towards her and reached his hand out to touch it and see that it was real, "What happened to you?"

Jean ran a hand through her new haircut and told him, "Whoever jumped me last night tried to scalp me, Murdock tried to help me and this was the end result." Then she smirked at the two men and asked, "How does it look?"

"Well I guess it could be worse," Face told her, "He could've gone for broke and shaved you bald."

Murdock appeared in the doorway behind her and feigned a look of insult at that remark. Jean just shrugged and told him, "It'll grow back. At least now I can show my face back at the studio."

"We'll give you a ride down there," Hannibal told her, "After that I have an appointment with our new client."

"He's not our client yet, Hannibal," Face reminded him, "He still has to go through Mr. Lee."

"Oh come on, Face, I've got a good feeling about this guy," he replied, then he turned to Jean and asked her, "What time do they finish shooting tonight?"

"6 o' clock, by that time we've lost the light," Jean answered.

"We'll pick you up on the way back," Hannibal told her as he took out a fresh cigar, "We found your car last night and took the liberty of returning it to your place. And by the way…"

"What?" she asked.

"When we do come back I want you to show us around that cemetery," Hannibal told her, "I want to see who's moving out and see if there's an obvious pattern."

"Hannibal if you take on this new mission you won't have time to look into my matter or the cemetery's either," Jean reminded him, "I'll take care of it myself, you've got enough stuff going on already."

Hannibal just grinned at her and said, "Remember I told you that you were getting off easy with me. Just be thankful I'm _not_ your father."

"Now _there's_ a nightmarish concept," she remarked.

Face went over to the door and about collided with B.A. who was making his way back in.

"Hey man, we gotta get going," he reminded Hannibal, then he noticed Jean and did a double take and asked, "What happened to you?"

Jean decided to take a simpler approach out of this and said, "Decided to try something new, what do you think?"

B.A. looked at the top of her head and smiled, "I like it."

He felt something grab him around the waist and turned to see it was Murdock, who had a big grin on his face and said, "I knew you'd come around to loving my ideas, B.A."

"I didn't say that, fool!" he said as he pushed Murdock away with one hand.

* * *

"I'm sorry, sir, but there have been no messages coming in or going out of here today for anybody," Hannibal told John Murtaugh, who after seeing Mr. Lee, went down to see a fisherman on the dock, who led him to a bar that was two steps away from falling apart, and one graying bartender who was being of no help.

"Well that's just great," the man said, "I've been sent on one wild goose chase after another after another, all the while my family's lives are in danger, and the guy I'm supposed to meet _this_ time doesn't even leave word for me when he _told_ me to be here on time, which I am!"

"Calm down, Mr. Murtaugh," Hannibal told the man as he started peeling off his mustache and yanked off his wig, "You've hired the A-Team."

The man's eyes bugged out and he about fell over with shock and reached over the bar and grabbed Hannibal by his shirt, "What!"

Hannibal chuckled and clapped his hand on the man's shoulder supportively and explained, "Sorry for the runaround, but we have a lot of people who would like to see us put away and they've tried to lure us out under the guise of clients who need our help, so we have to take precautions."

He apparently got through to the irritated man because Murtaugh calmed down and let go of Hannibal's shirt and said, "Oh…I understand."

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the door open and he spun around and saw three other men come in. Murdock came in first humming something to himself and carrying a skateboard under his arm; John recognized this man as somebody he had passed by on the way to the bar, and behind him Face was folding up a newspaper, he had 'accidentally' bumped into John at the corner, and then there was B.A., carrying in two roadblocks and a 'Road Closed Ahead' sign, he had been over on the other street where a roadwork crew was tearing up the asphalt with jackhammers.

"This is H.M. Murdock, Templeton Peck, and B.A. Baracus," Hannibal introduced them, "We've decided to take your case, but do you have any idea why this guy Max Bullen wants you out of business and out of the zip code?"

John laughed nervously and said, "I don't know, maybe he just hates me."

"Nah, it could never be anything that simple," Face shook his head, "If it's not about driving out competition, then there's a hidden agenda at work. Maybe something to do with the location of your business."

"I don't get it," Murtaugh told them.

"That's alright, we'll figure it out for ourselves," Hannibal told him, "We'll be out in a couple of days to check out the location and to let Bullen know we're in town, in the meantime I'd recommend you get back to your wife and kids and make sure they're alright, and leave the rest to us."

"Right," he looked around like he couldn't figure out what to do, then he went for the door, but turned back to them and asked, "But how…"

"Oh don't worry, Mr. Murtaugh, you'll know us when you see us," Hannibal assured him, "One more thing though, just so we're clear on this, Bullen has never offered to buy your store, right?"

He shook his head, "No, he's made it quite clear, he never pays for anything, everybody _else_ does."

"But you're sure it's not just a protection racket either?" Face asked.

John Murtaugh choked on a dry laugh and said, "Max Bullen doesn't offer anybody so much as a Kleenex, no way would he offer protection, money or no money."

"Alright, we'll be out there in a couple of days," Hannibal told him.

Face waited until Murtaugh had left the bar and the door was closed before he went over to Hannibal and asked, "You didn't even discuss our fee with him?"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Face," Hannibal told him as he finished taking his disguise off and tucking it away in a bag to be used again sometime in the future, "I think it's obvious this _is_ going to be a charity case. Small time, small town shop owner, makes a living repairing old TV sets and radios and selling slightly used records and decorative knives, he's not sitting on a nest egg."

"But then what's this guy Bullen want with him?" Murdock asked.

"I'm not sure," Hannibal said, "He doesn't want to buy the store, he's not in the protection racket, he's just threatening to kill this man and his family if he doesn't close up shop and get out of Dodge. Why? It's not a big business, I have my doubts as to whether it's even a successful business, Mr. Murtaugh doesn't seem to know this Max Bullen outside of the threats, so we can guess it's not a vendetta. We'll just have to head out there and take a look around for ourselves and see if anything pops out at us."

"Something tells me though that it's not going to be that simple," Face commented.

"Oh come on, Face," Hannibal said with his trademark smirk, "It's going to be…"

"Don't say it!" Face nearly hit the ceiling, "Don't say it!" He turned to Murdock and said, "If he says it, I'm getting out of here!" And he already started moving towards the door.

Hannibal was unfazed and just continued with an innocent look on his face, "A piece of cake."

Face screamed and actually jumped till they thought he would climb the walls, and Murdock pointed at Hannibal and told him, "That's it, that's the goodbye song!" and followed Face towards the door, with Hannibal laughing behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

"So if this guy Murtaugh is only 25 miles away, why aren't we going out there first thing in the morning?" Face asked Hannibal as they drove out to the movie studio to pick Jean up.

"Two reasons," Hannibal answered as he lit his cigar, "One, I want to see the cemetery tonight and see if there's any chance we can find the men responsible for Jean's attack last night."

"Do you _really_ think it has anything to do with grave robbers?" Face asked.

"Could be," Hannibal answered.

"What for?" Face asked, "For that matter, why would anybody want to rob graves in this day and age? Medical schools don't pay for donated bodies anymore…do they?"

"Well," Murdock spoke up, "There's always the black market to consider, they get the fresh corpses, harvest the organs and they can sell kidneys and lungs and hearts and lips and thumbs for mucho dinero, you know?"

"After the autopsies, Murdock?" Face asked.

"Maybe they weren't donors initially," he thought, "Or if they were religious they'd have to be buried within 24 hours and wouldn't have time for an autopsy. Or maybe somebody's just decided to start playing hide and seek with the corpses."

"That's our first order of business before this new job," Hannibal told them.

"And behind door number two, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"Before we head out to check on this guy Bullen, I think a refresher at the old obstacle course is in order."

"Aw Hannibal, not that again," Face said, "We just did that two months ago."

Hannibal was unmoved, "Regardless, I've noticed on the last few jobs we've pulled that we are not at the top of our game, we got lucky. One day at the course will help get us back on track and it isn't going to kill you, Face."

Face sneered and asked, "According to who?"

"Besides," Hannibal smirked, "I've got a few new plans arranged for the course."

Face groaned and sank against his seat in the back of the van.

* * *

"Well this is the place," Hannibal read the sign on the gate, "Forever Peaceful Cemetery." He turned to Jean and asked her, "Where are the graves that were hit?"

"I'll show you," Jean led the way in. Hannibal followed behind her, Face was next and he glanced left and right as if he expected somebody to jump out and yell 'boo!' at him, behind him Murdock met the creepy atmosphere with a goofy grin on his face as if _he_ were planning to jump out and scare somebody, and B.A. just growled quietly and kept his eyes straight ahead.

"I don't know what you expect to find, Hannibal," Jean told him, "I've been over these graves a dozen times, they're in different places, they're all different ages, different religions, everything's different, the only thing they have in common is they all died within the last two weeks, and they're all missing now."

"And the police aren't looking into this?" Face asked.

"Sure but what're they going to do, post a cop to watch the corpses all night?" Jean replied, "Nobody cares about the dead, until a few years ago it wasn't really even a crime to steal a dead body because it had no worth, now if you stole the coffin _then_ they could arrest you, but bodies, nobody cares about them. Just like that rock star that died and wanted to be cremated in the desert, remember him?"

"Now that is true," Murdock spoke up, "If Burke and Hare had only stayed as body snatchers, there wouldn't have been such a fuss, but because people started coming up Burked, _then_ it's a big deal." He got a weird look on his face and he started singing in a low creepy voice, "Up the close and down the stair, in the house with Burke and Hare, Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief…"

His song was abruptly cut off when B.A. reached out and started choking him with one hand.

"Shut up, fool," B.A. warned him, and released the hydraulic press grip on his throat.

"This was the first one they noticed had been robbed," Jean pointed to a plot near the entrance.

Hannibal knelt down to read the tombstone, "Mary Ellis, 70 years old, beloved wife and mother."

"Why would anybody want to do that?" Face couldn't help asking.

Hannibal saw three other graves in a row with the dirt caving in and he read those markers as well, "John Lynch, 58 years old, Veteran, Paul Mattox, 43 years old, husband, Jessica Knox, 32 years old."

"Dead at 30, buried at 60," Murdock read off of another tombstone in another row, and he did a double take and jumped back from that one. Then he went to another one that was very old and he had to kneel down and squint to read the worn away engraved epitaph, "You're…standing on…my…head." He looked down at the ground beneath his feet and not only jumped back but practically jumped into B.A.'s arms, but B.A. dropped him like a hot potato and told him, "Quit playing around, fool!"

In all they found eight graves that had lost their occupants, and Hannibal was recalling what they had found out, "These were three women and five men, their ages range from 23 to 70, two of the men were army veterans, six of them were married, four of them had kids, we know that one of them was Jewish and at least two of them were Catholics."

"And what's it all mean, Sherlock?" Jean asked.

"I don't know yet," Hannibal shook his head, "Maybe it's not so much who they are, but _where_ they are."

"What do you mean?" Face asked.

Hannibal opened his mouth to answer, then closed it and turned his head and glanced over at Jean and called over to her, "Hey Brutus."

Jean's head turned mechanically, like Hannibal had pulled a switch that operated the gears in her head and her neck, and her eyes, her eyes had been the first to move, like a vampire. Brutus may have been dead and gone, but the memory remained and was razor sharp as ever.

"Remember how we found you?" Hannibal asked her, "On a map you left the kills of those traffickers in a pattern to follow."

"You think the same thing's happening here, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"It's definitely possible," Hannibal said, "We're not having any luck finding a pattern based on who they were."

So they retraced their steps through the cemetery, marking where each robbery had taken place, but they still couldn't find anything about it that told them anything.

"It's almost dark, Hannibal, we ain't gonna find anything here now," B.A. told him.

"Yeah," Hannibal was willing to agree, "We'll have to figure something else out." He turned to the lieutenant and told him, "Face, I think we're going to need a helicopter."

Murdock's eyes lit up when he heard that.

"A helicopter, what for?" Face asked.

"Aerial shots," Hannibal pointed to the sky, "You and Murdock go overhead and get pictures and from there we can get an aerial view and a better idea if there's any kind of pattern to mark the graves that were hit. It might give us a clue as to what we're looking for."

Well, Face thought, on one hand they might have their hands tied up enough with that, that Hannibal would forget about running the obstacle course in the morning.

"There's something else," Hannibal told Face, "We need to find out who all _has_ been buried here in the last two weeks, are these eight all there are, or were there others that were overlooked for some reason?"

"Think maybe we should have Amy look into that?" Face suggested.

"No," Hannibal shook his head, "Anybody can check the obituaries in the newspaper records, we don't have to bring her into this."

"Who's Amy?" Jean asked.

"A friend of ours," Hannibal gave her a vague answer.

Jean scoffed and replied, "You actually have a friend?"

"Hmmm," Hannibal seemed to be brainstorming, and he told the others, "We'd have to do it _early_ in the morning because we'd have to finish that first and _then_ get out to the obstacle course for training." He ignored Face's groan and continued, "At that time there wouldn't be anybody here yet most likely."

"But if you're wrong and there is, somebody could be asking just _why_ a helicopter's flying over the cemetery at six in the morning," Face told him, "And just _where_ am I supposed to _get_ a helicopter that early? Do you have any idea how hard it is trying to scam one at a regular hour of the day? Does it have to be a helicopter? Can't we get a small plane instead?"

"People would wonder why a crop duster was flying over the cemetery too, Face, and I think we could get better shots from a helicopter."

"I don't care what they get, so long as _I_ ain't flying in it," B.A. told Hannibal.

"No worries there, B.A.," Face told him, "We wouldn't have any use for you."

Jean tapped Face on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Hannibal turned and noticed this and asked him, "Something you'd like to share with the rest of us, Lieutenant?"

Face moved away from her and said, "Jean says she knows where we would have access to 20 helicopters."

"Terrific, where is it?" Hannibal asked.

"There's a hangar near the movie studio," Jean told him, "They're working on a Vietnam film and have 20 restored Huey copters ready to go for the air scenes, a few of them double for the flight stunts and also for the cameramen to get the footage of the other choppers from on account of it's kind of low budget and they have to double up on anything they can."

"So we just go over there and borrow one of theirs," Face guessed.

"Wouldn't work," Jean shook her head, "They know _everybody_ who's connected to the movie, cast, crew, mechanics, everybody, they'd know you weren't involved."

"So why'd you bring it up?" Face asked, looking like he wanted to strangle her.

"I was thinking," she gestured towards Murdock, "Since Hannibal could find work as an actor, we can get Murdock in as a stunt pilot, and we get _you_ in as a new cameraman, and somebody tells the director they need more air shots, the last batch weren't any good, they shoot the air scenes at an abandoned base that's a few miles away from here. So when the caretakers see the helicopter flying overhead in the morning, they'll just think it's part of the movie being made."

"Then we'd high tail it _over_ to the base, get a few air shots for the movie, return the chopper and the camera and then conveniently disappear," Face concluded, and turned to Hannibal and told him, "I think you're rubbing off on her." He turned back to Jean and said, "Only one problem, why would they need a new stunt pilot?"

"Well I was figuring we could have B.A. go up to one of the pilots and convince them that they've suddenly become sick and need a few days off," Jean explained.

They looked to B.A. who had a rare look on his face, he was grinning like the cat that just finished swallowing the last of the 500 pound canary.

"I think that can be arranged," Hannibal said.

* * *

"Face, the next time I say we need aerial shots," Hannibal said as he flipped through the pictures they had gotten that morning, "I think we'd have better luck if I just stuck you in a tree."

"Now there's an idea," Face cynically replied and told him, "We had to take the chopper down so low to _get_ the pictures that we about hit every tree, power line and bird between here and the hangar."

They had returned to the cemetery early in the morning and Hannibal had marked the tombstones so from the air they would know which ones they were looking for. He put the pictures together to make a sort of map of the cemetery's layout, and all four men looked at the pictures from every angle conceivable and they still couldn't find anything that would tell them anything about why _these_ graves were targeted.

"Unfortunately," Hannibal told Jean as he handed her the pictures, "Our living client and his problem takes precedence over these people for the time being."

"I understand that, Hannibal, but you also know me," Jean replied, "You know I believe in justice for the dead just as much for the living."

That had been the start of the whole mess they went through last year. It certainly wasn't anything he would forget any time soon.

"Let me ask you a question, kid," he said to her, "How did you get involved in what's going on over there? You're new out here, and you don't have any connections to anybody buried in that graveyard, do you?"

Jean shook her head, "I guess you could say it's just my morbid personality; somebody in the late 20th century is robbing graves, I want to know why."

"Well do us a favor while we're gone, don't go back there again until we get back," he said, "In the meantime, is there a friend you can stay with?"

Jean looked at him like he was crazy and told him, "I didn't move out here to make friends, and at that I've been pretty successful."

"Don't you know anybody?" Face asked.

"A few of the other stuntmen, that's about it," she said, "Nobody I particularly like."

"Well, we shouldn't be gone more than a few days, I doubt that's enough time for any real damage to be done back on this end, when we get back we'll figure out what to do about the cemetery, but while we're gone, since we couldn't find anything _at_ the cemetery to connect the victims, I want you to check the newspaper records of the obituaries; find out if more people have been buried here in the last couple of weeks, see if there's anything that these eight people had in common, anything that could help us figure out why this is happening."

Jean nodded and replied, "Can do."

* * *

Face heard the noise escaping his body as his own breathing, though right now it sounded like anything but. Instead it sounded like the air being wrangled from him through a high suction tube. His chest rose and fell practically as fast as he blinked and his heart was pounding against his chest so hard he half expected for it to fly right out. He looked up from where he had collapsed on the ground, to Murdock who was only doubled over with his hands on his knees and breathing a normal, ragged, jerky breathing after running Hannibal's obstacle course, and running an extra three miles to boot.

When Hannibal said he had a few new plans for the course, Face could guess what that meant, but he quickly found out he was wrong. One of Hannibal's new gimmicks was to set up a barbed wire fence that was hooked up to deliver small electric shocks if they touched it or the fence's framing; and they could only pass once they cut the wires that supplied the electric current to the wire. B.A. had gotten it on the first try, Murdock had taken a couple, Face hadn't been able to get it cut fast enough for Hannibal's liking so he reset it and had Face do it five more times, each time getting a little shock that entered through his fingertips and extended to other parts of his body.

"You know something, Murdock," Face said in between wheezing gasps, "I think our colonel's done lost his mind."

Murdock huffed and puffed like the big bad wolf a few times and told Face, "I know a doctor at the V.A. who could look into it, he specializes on people's minds splitting away from the rest of them."

Face pushed himself up and started to stand up, but lost his balance and grabbed onto Murdock but just wound up pulling both of them down. The next thing both of them saw was a large pair of silver sneakers, and following the view up, they led to an army green jumpsuit, and B.A.'s big angry mudsucker face.

"Come on you two, quit playing around and _get up_."

Get up? Face didn't even have the strength to give voice to those words. Get up, easy for him to say, nothing ever fazed B.A., other than getting hit in the head with a 2 by 4. B.A. quickly figured out they weren't going to get up so he grabbed them each by the hands and jerked them to their feet.

"Thanks, B.A," Face huffed out, and then when they heard Hannibal coming up screaming about time, he asked B.A., "Can't you eat that stopwatch of his?"

"How'd we do, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"Well, you made good time on the run," Hannibal said as he put the watch away, "But you were slow on the obstacle course, Face I want you and Murdock to run it again."

Face fell right back down. Then he heard something and he looked up at the others, "Do you hear a car coming?"

Hannibal and B.A. looked around but didn't see anything, though they now heard it too; Murdock ran over to the climbing wall and upon reaching the top he looked out past the training base, and saw a white blur racing their way.

"Somebody's coming guys, get ready!" he said as he jumped off the top of the wall and made a perfect landing, on B.A.'s back. B.A. threw him off and they all went out to the entrance that separated this area from the dirt road connecting it to the outside world and they saw that the car speeding towards them was a white corvette coupe. It screeched to a halt and they saw Jean get out of it, once again dressed all in white.

"What're you doing here?" Hannibal demanded to know. He knew that they hadn't been followed here and he also knew that she hadn't been waiting around for two hours out of their sight. She had to have just come from somewhere, but they certainly hadn't told her where they were going.

"So this is where the A-Team spends its training days," she said half cynically, then told him, "Hannibal you guys gotta get out of here, we're shooting on location less than a mile away from here today, anybody could find their way out here."

"You mean like _you_ did?" Face asked.

"When?" Hannibal asked her.

"1 o' clock this afternoon," she said.

Hannibal consulted his watch which really told him what he already knew, "We've got a while before we have to worry about that. We'll wrap up things here and then be on our way, out to Fort Gulch to see our client's shop, and the people trying to run him out of it."

"That's why you're doing this?" Jean asked, "To take on a new set of mobsters?"

When she said that, something occurred to Face and he slowly turned to glare at Hannibal and reminded him, "I thought you said this mission was going to be…"

"A piece of cake," he and Murdock and B.A. all told him.

Hannibal shrugged innocently with a coy look on his face and replied, "Regardless of how easy this job is, it's not going to hurt anybody to be refreshed in this."

Jean looked around at the obstacle course and said, sounding somewhat impressed by what she saw, "So this is Hannibal Smith's own private torture chamber."

"Really now," Hannibal said, with one eye traveling around to see Face, "Where would you get an idea like that?"

Jean gave the place a second glance and she asked Hannibal, "Since you've got a few hours before you have to pull up stakes and leave this place, would you mind if I tried your course once for fun?"

"For fun?" Face repeated, and laughed like a madman as he slowly sank to the ground again, "For fun, you've got a little sadist in you haven't you?"

Hannibal smirked and told Jean, "I don't think there'd be any harm in that. In fact," he turned to the others, "I'll have you run it with Murdock, and Face."

Face stopped laughing and started groaning at this, Murdock helped pull him up and they went back to the starting point.

"Since you never did this before, I'll give you a run-through of it," Hannibal told her and pointed at the obstacles one by one, "First you jump through those tires, then you jump and grab hold of that," he pointed to a four framed set of poles that crisscrossed like a quadruplet set of monkey bars, "And climb your way over to the other side, _then, _you crawl under that," he pointed to a row of barbed wire strung over a well worn crawl space in the dirt that the three other commandos had slithered across countless times, "Then you come to that," he pointed to the barbed wire fence, "It's electrified and you'll find a small set of wire cutters to kill the main circuit before you can pass through, and since the top is cleared of all wire that's how you get across, either climb it or swing over it. After that you climb up this side of that wall and then climb down the other side, then you climb up to that platform and use that rope to swing over the mud pit, you hit the ground running and come to that rope net, you climb up it and swing on the cable down to the other end by that tree. Any questions?"

"Is that it?" Jean cynically asked as she looked at him and watched his response.

"You'll do fine," he told her, "Alright guys, get ready, I've already taken the liberty to reset the electrified fence." He went over towards B.A. and took out his stopwatch, "Ready…go!"

And they were off and jumping, they made it through the tires, then swung and climbed across the massive monkey bars, and as they neared the barbed wire, Face told Jean, "Hannibal forgot to tell you something about this part of the course."

"What's that?" Jean asked as they ran towards it.

"He's getting ready to open fire, everybody hit the dirt!" Murdock told them, and all three of them hit the ground crawling just before Hannibal started shooting blanks at them with a rifle.

Hannibal moved along the side of the wire netting as he kept his aim at them and continue firing, and he stopped just as they reached the end and then made their way over to the electrified fence. Determined not to get another jolt, Face acted on pure memory and slipped his cutters around the right wire and snipped it on the first try, Murdock and Jean were both right behind him and joined him in vaulting over the fence.

B.A. watched as Hannibal alternated between watching the three of them and down at his stopwatch, and he couldn't help asking, "How they doing?"

"A little slow," Hannibal nodded towards Jean, "Her especially, but they're doing alright."

They went down to the other end of the course to meet with the three people who had just completed it and were all winded by the experience.

"Very good," Hannibal told them in his usual dismissive manner, "Though one thing I'd like to know." He turned to Jean, "For someone who never even completed basic training, how the hell did you do that?"

Jean laughed in between gasps for air and she told Hannibal, "I'm a stuntman, all we do _is_ run obstacles, if it's not one kind, it's another." She panted and shook her head and said, "But I'll tell you, I never saw one quite like this."

Murdock saw Jean reach for a zipper on her waist and saw the one-piece race suit become a two-piece one as the jacket came off, underneath it Jean only wore a thin army green tank top and she said, "One thing I hate about this job, this damn suit's going to kill me before the explosions do. Every day I sweat off about 10 pounds in this thing, it's heavily padded for protection but poorly ventilated for whoever has to wear it for six hours."

"And probably _not_ the best thing to run an obstacle course in," Face noted.

* * *

"Alright guys, is that everything?"

"Yup," B.A. said as he closed up the back of the van, "Ain't nobody gonna know we were ever here, Hannibal."

"Good, that's the way I like it," Hannibal turned and saw Murdock and Face slowly making their way over towards them and he hollered at them, "Come on you two, we're getting out of here!"

"Hannibal," Murdock called back as they came over to him, "I think we got a problem."

"What's that?"

Murdock pointed back towards the way out, "The Saint's car is still here."

"What?" Hannibal asked and went to see it for himself. He came back and told the others, "I thought she left half an hour ago."

"We already went over this whole place getting everything loaded up, where is she then?" Face wanted to know.

The only obvious place was the obstacle course so Hannibal decided to check it over again. It had mostly been dismantled so if anybody _would_ come across this place they wouldn't have any idea who had been here recently or for what reason, but the fence, the bars and the wall were all still up and intact. As he neared the wall, he got his answer and saw Jean laying on the ground with her back to him. Hannibal chuckled to himself, odd place to pick for a nap. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called to her, "Alright kid, we're checking out so come on!" She didn't respond so he took a few steps closer to her and tried again, "Hey Jean, it's time to get out of here, so get up!" Still no response.

"Jean?" Hannibal was starting to wonder why she didn't get up and she didn't say anything. He started to walk over towards her but when he realized she wasn't moving he broke into a run until he practically tripped over her. He rolled her onto her back and saw her eyes were closed and she still wasn't moving, and he thought back to what she said about never having to run an obstacle that was like this, and he started to worry that there had been a reason for that.

"Jean!" his hands found their way to her shoulders and started shaking her, and that got a response.

Her eyes opened and she practically shot up and was screaming at him, "Geez, Hannibal, can't a person take a nap with you around? No wonder Face is always griping about running this course."

Hannibal felt a breath escape him that he didn't know was in him and he chuckled nervously. "I thought you were dead."

"Oh please, Hannibal, it'll take more than one of your obstacle courses to kill me," she said as she got up.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, just a little tired," she said, "What's going on?"

"We're getting out of here," he told her, "Incidentally, how did _you_ find this place?"

"Oh I was doing a few more practice runs and I decided to get off the main path and see what was in the surrounding area."

"At 80 miles an hour?" he asked her.

"Well, it's what I'll be doing for the camera," she said, "I love this job, I love getting to race around in the cars, I know it ain't much of a calling but I think this is mine. I already saw death once, Hannibal, I'm not afraid of it anymore. But that doesn't mean I act like an idiot either, I know what I'm doing."

"I'm sure you do," he replied, "And I'm also sure you'll do a fine job at the newspaper records while we're gone."

She scowled at him sarcastically but finally cracked a smile and said, "Alright, Hannibal, I'll see you guys in a few days."

Jean found her jacket and zipped it to the white pants and said a round of goodbyes to everybody and got in her car and drove out of there. A minute later, Face told Hannibal, "We gotta get out of here too, we just picked up something on the radio scanner, Decker's in the vicinity and it sounds like they're on the way here."

"That figures," Hannibal said as they piled into the van, "Okay B.A., hit it."

They were gone long before Decker ever had a chance to pick up any sign of them, and they were already halfway out to Fort Gulch before Decker and the MPs ever came within spitting distance of the training base. What Hannibal and the others hadn't known was that Jean hadn't gone back to the studio; instead she had stayed to run the stunt car through a few more practice courses before filming started that day, and when she saw the line of cars with red lights coming, she knew what it had to mean. She forgot about her helmet and just put the car into gear and buried the gas pedal to the floor and drove straight at Decker's car.

There had been a few hundred yards of distance between the military convoy and the corvette, but it was quickly closed as Decker realized the white blur racing towards him at 100 mph was another car; he screamed at the MP who was driving to watch what he was doing and get them out of the way, but it was too late, the two cars collided and the noise was deafening as they crashed into each other. The immediate aftermath was as if they were watching a bomb explosion die down; everything seemed to happen slowly and the sounds of what was happening sounded unreal. Decker had been knocked back against his seat and was hit by the impact of the whole front end of the car being smashed in, but the first thing he noticed was he could still move and so could the MP, and they both got out of the car.

Despite all the training he had had in the army and all the desensitizing experiences he had been through over the years, he could still feel a shaking sensation in his hands and his legs. Still, he managed to stand tall as he marched over to the other car, that was also smashed in at the front but the rest of it seemed to be in fair order, and he went around to the driver's side door that was somehow only slightly damaged and he saw the driver was a woman slumped over the steering wheel with blood covering the front of her body and the side of her head.

"My God," was all he could bring himself to say.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well Face, what do you think?" Hannibal asked as they finished making the rounds in John Murtaugh's store.

"Well I just don't know, Hannibal," Face shook his head, "We've been over this whole place…I can't see why anybody would want to run this business out and take it over. It's a nice place and all but this place hardly has a leg to stand on as it is, why would anybody want to bother with it?"

"B.A.?" Hannibal called up to the second floor of the shop.

"Negative, Hannibal," B.A. leaned over the banister to look down at the others, "There ain't no bugs in this place, and also no safe, no hiding places, in other words, nothing."

"You sure?"

"Man I even took apart every drawer in this dude's desk, ain't _anything_ here that shouldn't be," B.A. answered as he came down the stairs.

"Hmmm," Hannibal took out a new cigar so he could think better, "So it's nothing _in_ the store…might be the store itself. There's got to be _some_ reason that this guy Bullen wants Murtaugh out of business so badly."

"Yeah but what could it be?" Face asked, "He's not offering to buy the place, he's not offering protection at 30% weekly interest, it doesn't sound like he really wants this place at all."

"Now _there's_ a thought," Hannibal noted.

They heard the bell over the front door ring as somebody came in, and they went to the doorway to the front room to see how Murdock handled the customers.

Three men in suits who looked like they resided in a family of cockroaches came up to the front counter, and Murdock, who was behind the register, greeted them with an overly enthusiastic smile and said, "Good day, gentlemen, welcome to Murtaugh's Sales and Repairs, what can I do you for? Would you like us to fix your television set?"

"No," the first man told him.

"Well if you don't want your television set fixed, just _how_ do you think you're going to watch Miami Vice on Friday nights? Or cartoons on Saturday morning? Or reruns of Hee Haw on Sunday nights? How are you going to know from Grandpa 'what's for dinner' or what town to salute if you don't have your television fixed?" Murdock asked, then didn't let him answer as he continued, "Tell you what, instead I'll sell you a brand new television set, just got it in today, 19 inches, black frame, color screen, fresh out of the factory for $199.99 plus sales tax, luxury tax and thumb tacks."

"You listen to me," the man told him, "I don't want any television set."

"No?" Murdock replied in mock disbelief, "You don't like television? But there are movies on every night, and sports, and game shows where people dress like large chickens!" And to emphasize his point, he flapped his wings and clucked and acted like he was going to peck them to death.

Murdock quickly found his windpipe being squeezed like a grapefruit as the man reached over the counter and pulled him forth by his neck and pulled a gun on him and said, "Where's your boss?"

"Something I can do to help you, gentlemen?" Hannibal asked as he came into the front room, with Face and B.A. behind him.

"Where's Murtaugh?" the man asked as he let go of Murdock and aimed his gun more towards them.

"Out picking up Chinese food for lunch," Hannibal answered humorously, "Would you care to leave a message for him?"

"Who are you?" the second man demanded to know.

"We're his new employees," Hannibal said, "Just hired this morning."

The first man shook his head and told him, "Murtaugh ain't got the dough to hire anybody for anything."

"Who're you telling?" Face half mumbled under his breath.

"Well we're not making our living off of food stamps so I'd say he's got some money somewhere," Hannibal told him, "Your name wouldn't happen to be Bullen by any chance, would it?"

"No," he answered.

"Didn't think so," Hannibal said as he bit down on his cigar, "Look pal, this is a shop, meaning it's a business, meaning either you buy something from us or you sell something _to_ us, so either make us an offer or get out."

The man snorted and told Hannibal, "I guess your boss didn't give you the memo from our boss."

"That Max Bullen doesn't pay for anything?" Face asked, "We've heard that song before."

"B.A.," Hannibal turned around, "Why don't you show these gentlemen what happens to non-paying customers?"

He came out from behind the counter and grabbed the first man and lifted him up in the air and threw him through the store's display window, at that same time Face clocked the second man and Murdock brained the third one with the cash register, which popped the drawer out and rang up NO SALE. They went outside and saw the first goon lying on the sidewalk in a pile of broken glass and Hannibal told him, "You're familiar with the term 'you break it, you buy it'? Well, you can tell your boss that he's getting the bill for one new window, Face…"

Face took a notepad out of his pocket and started writing on it, "Let's see, one average sized window costs about $600 to replace, one of this size and the painted on sign will have to be replaced as well, and cleanup…I'd say $1,700 should just about cover those costs." He ripped the note off the pad and stuck it on the man's jacket pocket.

"And you can let Bullen know that if he _doesn't_ pay, we're going to drop in on him and collect," Hannibal told him.

* * *

"Well we didn't get anywhere with that one," Face told Hannibal later in the afternoon after they had the glass company replace the window.

"I don't know, Face, I think we hit on something during that little visit," Hannibal replied, "Did you see the look on that guy's face when he thought we were actually getting paid for working here?"

"Even at minimum wage it takes a lot of money to keep four new guys employed," Murdock commented.

"So what do you think, Hannibal?" Face asked.

"I'm thinking that Bullen knows about a stash of money somewhere, and most likely Murtaugh _doesn't_ know about it, and Bullen's trying to lay his hands on it."

"Yeah but Colonel, we've been over every inch of this store and there's nothing here," Murdock reminded him.

"I think the business is a front for Bullen," Hannibal said, "He probably knows there's nothing here but is just doing all of this so Murtaugh thinks it is, so he won't get curious and try to find it for himself."

"Well then, where is it?" Face asked.

"Bullen told Murtaugh to get out of _town_ or he would kill his family…maybe it's at his house," Hannibal said, "Let's go pay his family a visit."

Murdock finished the sign he was making and hung it on the front door that read: Gone to Peru - Back in a Few, and they got in the van and drove out to the address Murtaugh had given Hannibal as being his home. It was a decent two story house in the middle of the street, like any one of a thousand normal little homes for normal little families; the yard was a decent size and covered with green grass and judging by the two bicycles, basketball, soccer ball, baseball and bat and jump rope piled in a corner by the house, saw regular use by the children.

They got out of the van and walked up the stairs to the large front porch. The main door was open but the screen door was still shut, though it gave them a good view into the house. Hannibal didn't see anybody but he could hear people inside, he knocked on the glass and waited. A minute later a thin blonde boy who looked about 13 wearing jeans and a "Jaws" T-shirt appeared at the door and he looked at the man standing in front of him and asked, "Yeah?"

"Hi son, is your father home?" Hannibal asked.

The boy eyed them suspiciously and he said, "Just a minute," and inched away from the door.

A minute after that, a woman came to the door; she was a small woman who looked like she had been a young mother, she wore a simple blue housedress and had her hair done up in a home perm. It was obvious that if there _was_ any money in this house, nobody knew about it.

The woman quickly adopted the same leering glance that her son had and she went to the door and said, "Yes?"

"Mrs. Murtaugh?" Hannibal asked.

"Yes," the woman said, the hesitation in her voice made it obvious she didn't have any idea what was going on.

"Hi, I'm Hannibal Smith, your husband hired us to work at his store," that was the cover story if anybody asked, "Can we come in?"

For a second the woman looked as if she didn't have any idea what he was talking about, then it hit her and she said, "Oh of course…come in," she unlocked the screen door and opened it for them.

"I'm sorry," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair to try and fix the loose strands, "John didn't tell me you'd be coming to the house…you…you're the A-Team?"

"So they tell us anyway," Murdock said.

Hannibal introduced her to B.A., Face and Murdock and asked her, "Is your husband here?"

She shook her head, "He went out earlier, we're waiting for him to come back…what's going on?"

"Where is he?" Face asked.

"He…he," she tried to think, "We were out of a few things, he went to pick up some groceries but…he went to get them from the next town so nobody would recognize him and follow him."

"Alright, we'll wait here with you until he gets back," Hannibal told her.

"Is that necessary?"

"Oh we won't get in your way," Hannibal explained, "Just think of us as extra security, Miss…"

"My name's Janis," she said, and nodded her head to the side at the boy who was standing pressed against the wall, "And that's my son, Jamie."

Hannibal heard something, all four of them heard something, a low sound of a floorboard creaking in another room; but Janis and her son didn't seem to hear it. They didn't say anything about it but B.A. slipped out of the room as nonchalantly as was possible for him and went to see who else was in the house. He found the answer in the kitchen, a girl that was probably 10 years old dressed in a red T-shirt and blue jeans, also pressed flat against the wall, as if she had thought she could disappear so nobody would see her. B.A. knelt down so he could see her eye to eye and he saw just how terrified she was. She didn't say anything and he didn't say anything to her either, just smiled at her and waved; that managed to get half of a smile out of her. He had a feeling it would be easier to fly with Murdock than to get this girl to say so much as 'hi' to him.

* * *

"So you and your family haven't lived here long?" Face asked Janis after a few rounds of trying to get any information they could out of her and getting nowhere fast.

"No," she answered from where she sat at the dining room table, "We only moved here a few months ago, before that we lived out in Arizona."

"Why did you come here then?" Hannibal asked.

"Well it was a nice, quiet town, you never heard of anything bad happening here, we thought we had found a perfect place to raise our children and start a new life on…"

"You said children," Face said, "Do you have another son?"

"No, a daughter," she answered, "Her name's Alexis."

"Where's she?" Hannibal asked.

"Right here, Hannibal," B.A. walked out of the kitchen with the girl following beside him and her hand in his, "She was making sure nobody broke into the kitchen."

As soon as he let go of her, she immediately went over to her brother and practically burrowed behind him. Janis lowered her head towards the table and said in a hushed voice, "She's very shy," as if it was some dreaded family secret to be ashamed of.

Hannibal caught a glance at the two kids, and quickly looked back to the mother. If looks could kill, that boy would have him in the ground right now.

"Have you or your family been threatened here at your home?" he asked Janis.

"No," she answered, "Nobody comes here, it's only at his work that they come in and threaten him, threaten to kill us, unless we leave. We've never seen these people before in our lives, we never did anything to them, so why do they want to hurt us?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Face commented, "It doesn't really make any sense to us either. How long has your husband been gone?"

The nervous woman consulted her wristwatch, "About an hour, he should've been back before now." She looked up at the men and said, "You don't think that he…"

Hannibal tried to be reassuring as he told her, "I don't think anything's happened to him, all the same we can head out and check. B.A., would you and Murdock mind staying here while Face and I go and see what we can find?"

"No problem, Hannibal," he answered.

"Which way did he go?" Hannibal asked Janis.

"It's just two miles straight east of here, you can't miss it," she told him, "It's the first place you come to after leaving city limits here and the supermarket's about the only thing that town has going for it."

"Alright, come on, Face," Hannibal told him. He saw Janis get up from the table and go into the kitchen for a minute and he signaled for Murdock and B.A. to come over to them and he said quietly so the woman and her kids couldn't hear them, "While we're gone, keep your eyes peeled for anybody coming here, and also, B.A, you're the one that's good with kids, see if you can find out what's wrong with that boy."

"Think it's something serious, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know, but I'm curious to know if nobody's been _here_ to threaten them, why he looks like that. You can tell, that boy doesn't trust anybody."

"Maybe somebody _did_ drop in and the mother just wasn't here to know it," Murdock thought.

"If they did, it ain't gonna happen again," B.A. said, "We'll make sure of that."

"And we'll go see what's keeping Murtaugh," Hannibal added, "Come on, Face."

* * *

As it turned out, they didn't have to go far to look for Murtaugh; they had swung past the shop just to see if anything had happened there while they were gone, and saw that Bullen's guys had come back with a new message for them. All the windows of the shop had been busted and also so had most of the merchandise and the broken pieces of TV sets and radios were scattered outside the windows like the leftover confetti from a tickertape parade, and looking at this mess in horror was John Murtaugh, who looked like he was going to be sick. He turned and saw Hannibal and Face coming over to him and he asked them, "What the hell went on here?"

"Nothing that I think your insurance won't cover," Hannibal told him, "And if it doesn't, we'll get the money from Bullen directly."

"I don't get what's going on here," John told him, "You said that you were going to handle this."

"And we are," Hannibal replied before he could go any further into his tirade, "But I don't believe your problems have anything to do with your store."

"What?" Murtaugh asked.

Hannibal explained, "We've been all over this shop, we can't find anything that would make anyone want to take it over or even just get their hands on the property. Bullen seems to think you've got some money on your hands that you shouldn't."

"Oh yeah? Well I don't!" the man angrily replied, "Bullen's already taken care of that!"

Hannibal shook his head, "We went to your house, I talked to your wife, she says you only bought that house a few months ago."

"That's right," he confirmed, "At the time this seemed like a perfect place to put our family and raise our kids. My father was an army man, we were always on the move, I attended 12 different schools in as many states before I ever graduated. I didn't want that for my kids, we already had to move twice when my job went south and I didn't want them growing up like I did, I wanted us to settle down in one place and stay there and live out our lives accordingly, and now _this_ happens. Well I'll tell you something, Smith, I don't care what this guy Bullen does, I'm _not_ running anymore."

"And we're not telling you to," Hannibal assured him, "However, we're trying to figure out what's going on, and my guess is that somewhere down the road Bullen lost a lot of money and for some reason it was left either in or near your house."

Murtaugh looked like he'd been hit in the face with a shovel, and once again he reached out and grabbed Hannibal's jacket in handfuls for support, "What?"

Hannibal pulled the man's hands off of his jacket and said, "You've only been here for a few months, I'm going to guess that means you haven't had time to get everything unpacked from the move, how well do you know the layout of the house so far?"

The man seemed to calm down and think about the answer to that and he told Hannibal, "Not much…I know where all our furniture is and that's about it, I still can't even find the damn fuse box when the circuit pops."

"Alright," Hannibal said, "We're going to go back to the house and we're going to search every inch of it until we find something there that's not supposed to be. I'll guarantee we find something."

* * *

The first thing they saw when they got in the house was B.A. replacing an outlet on the wall with Jamie helping him.

"Alright little man, hand me a screwdriver," he said, and did a slight double take when he got handed a paint can opener instead. Aside from the curved prong end it was built just like a screwdriver so he let it go and told Jamie, "Get me another screwdriver."

"How's it going, B.A.?" Hannibal asked.

His first response was a low grunt, followed by him telling Murtaugh, "Whoever sold you this death trap probably has a condemned bridge to sell somebody too…half the wiring in this house is gonna have to be replaced, everything either keeps shorting out," he looked down at the old outlet that was singed black around the edges and added, "Or exploding."

"Has Murdock been assisting with that?" Face asked humorously.

B.A. growled at him and warned him, "Don't even joke about that, Face."

"Sorry."

"Speaking of which though, where _is_ Murdock?" Hannibal asked, noting how quiet the house seemed.

B.A. jerked his thumb up towards the ceiling and answered, "Upstairs with the little girl."

"Get her talking yet?" Hannibal asked.

"No," B.A. answered without missing a beat.

Hannibal extended a finger to aim at Jamie and asked, "And this one?" He noted that the boy didn't look at him and made no response to that question.

"He says there was a guy here last week but he thinks it was somebody legit," B.A. answered.

"Where's the Mrs.?" Face asked.

B.A. pointed to the ceiling again, "Also upstairs."

Hannibal and Face went up to the second floor and they could hear people laughing, it was Janis and Alexis, they found them in what Hannibal presumed to be the girl's bedroom, sitting on the floor and watching the closet door. They quietly entered the room and Hannibal pointed at the door questioningly and Janis nodded, so Hannibal crept over to it and knocked on the door, and from inside he could hear Murdock say, "Come in."

Hannibal grabbed the doorknob and opened the door and Murdock practically fell out but managed to stand in the doorway and he told Hannibal, "Sorry Colonel, but we're all out of room."

Hannibal smiled pleasantly and replied, "Can I see you alone for a minute, Captain?"

"Sure, just a minute," Murdock disappeared back into the closet and they heard him clapping his hands and screaming, "Alright, everybody out! Move it, move it, clear out! Vámonos!" He appeared in the doorway again and was kicking at the air, telling whoever was or wasn't there, "Everybody out-out-out! Make way for the Colonel! Okay Hannibal, you can come in now."

"Alright," Hannibal said as he stepped into the closet with Murdock, who closed the door behind them, but before he could say anything else, Murdock had something to say to him.

"Colonel, do you see this wall here?" Murdock waved his hand at the wall right behind him, to the right side of the closet.

"Yeah," Hannibal slowly nodded, not sure where the pilot was going with this.

"Knock on that wall over there," he pointed to the left one, "Then try this one and see what you think."

He did, and he noticed what Murdock had apparently noticed, "This one sounds hollow."

Murdock nodded and said, "How right you are, Colonel, watch this."

Hannibal was surprised. Murdock had grabbed the right wall and with a small ripping sound he saw the whole wall come off and be put to the side like it was a sliding door.

"Wait'll you see this, Colonel," Murdock said as he stepped into the room hidden behind the wall.

It wasn't a large room by any means, it might serve as a broom closet but it was big enough for the two of them to stand in it with a little breathing room, and apparently it had meant something if somebody went to the trouble of closing off the room with a faulty wall panel.

"Find anything in here?" Hannibal asked.

"Ah, no," Murdock looked down, "But it looks like something did use to be here, Colonel, see the stains on the floor?"

"Yeah," he noticed the square grease stains permanently set down into the floorboards, "This room was used for storing something once upon a time, but what? And where is it now? And where did it go? Obviously Bullen can't have it if it was anything of any value."

"Well I don't think _they_ knew this room was here either," Murdock told Hannibal, clearly meaning the Murtaugh family.

"No," Hannibal agreed, "You're right, Murtaugh keeps insisting he doesn't know about any money and I believe him, if he _did_, he _wouldn't_ be sticking around here letting those guys harass him because he knows they're not going to quit until they kill him. He would've taken his family and gotten out of here because he could afford to. Incidentally, have you been able to get anything out of the girl?"

Murdock shook his head, "She's a tight lipped one, Colonel. Oh, but she did tell me that a few days ago a man was following her when she walked home, and she ran in the house and he was out on the sidewalk looking in the window and grinning." He stretched his mouth out to its limit for a visual aid and he wound up looking like a poor replica of Victor Hugo's man who laughs.

"That would explain why they're both like that, they don't trust anybody that comes around here," Hannibal said, "And I'm guessing they both happened when the parents weren't home."

"Most likely because she said it when her mother wasn't in the room," Murdock answered, "Then she clammed right back up like a sore oyster."

"I see," Hannibal replied. He pointed towards the real wall and said, "Don't suppose there's anything behind that one, is there?"

"Just termites if that much," Murdock told him.

"No matter, if there _is_ anything in this house that Bullen's anxious to get his hands on, we'll find it and we'll do it before _he_ does." He glanced back to the door and thought out loud, "Though I wonder if once we find it, he'd be anymore enticed to come and pick it up if he thought the family was gone."

"Yeah but where would they go, Colonel?" Murdock asked, "You heard Murtaugh, he says he's not leaving again."

"Yeah I know," Hannibal agreed, "And unfortunately I can see him being stubborn about doing it, even if it means keeping his family safe. So we'll just have to deal with that one when we get there. The first order of business is to find out what could possibly be stashed away in this house that some crooked business hotshot like Bullen would want to get his hands on."

* * *

And the result of that was a complete search of the house which required one of the members of the Murtaugh family with them at all times to tell them if anything they found didn't belong. Six hours later the search proved as fruitless as an orange tree in a blizzard; for a family with no money to buy anything new, they already had the house full with enough things that nobody could pick up so much as a nail without figuring out where it came from, and it turned out everything belonged to them.

"At least we already swept this place for bugs," Face commented to Murdock that night, "That's one less thing to do after we get done with this scavenger hunt."

"Well I'm sure glad of that, look," Murdock tapped Face on the shoulder and pointed. Face turned to see what Murdock was talking about and he saw Hannibal was on the phone. Apparently he didn't get the party he was looking for because he held the receiver to his ear for a minute and then hung up.

"Something wrong, Hannibal?" Face asked.

Hannibal checked his watch and said somewhat absentmindedly, "Nothing really, just since things are winding down here for the night, I tried calling Jean to see if she found anything at the newspapers yet, but there's no answer at her house. I tried an hour ago and there wasn't any answer then either."

"Knowing her she's probably back at the cemetery playing Boris Karloff," Face commented, "Now _there's_ a job she's cut out for, if I saw her running towards me in a dark place _I'd_ be scared."

Murdock had a goofy grin on his face as he noted, "It sounds to me like somebody's jealous."

"Of what?" Face turned to him.

"Of the fact that you know there's at least one woman in the whole wide world who can't fall for your conman charm or your shark smile," Murdock explained, then pointed at Face's dark green jacket and told him, "Why just look at you, Facey, you're turning green, just like a swamp monster."

Face rolled his eyes and Hannibal chuckled and said, "Well anything she has or hasn't found will wait until tomorrow. Right now we need to figure out who takes first watch tonight."

"I will," Face volunteered, figuring he'd have the easy shift since if anybody _was_ going to break into the house, it wouldn't be before midnight, and if nobody came after midnight either, then everybody else could take turns being up and waiting for nothing to happen.

* * *

Jean opened her eyes as she tried rolling onto her side and off of her back. The hospital room was dark but outside she could hear people talking, and she could hear Decker's voice through the door, she knew he was speaking to one of the doctors. He was wondering when she was going to wake up. Oh, he wasn't going to be asking about _her_ welfare, he wanted her awake so he could find out why she had crashed her car into his. They could have that car checked and they would know there wasn't anything wrong with it, she knew that. He would want an explanation, she knew that also. So far though, from what she could gather, he didn't seem too curious about _why_ she was out on that dirt path miles from civilization. She would've laughed if it didn't hurt to, they had no idea what she was doing out there; her helmet had been discarded on the floor of the car in the crash, and it never occurred to anybody why she was wearing a racing suit. Though if Jean had to guess, she would figure Decker hadn't been to see a movie in the theater since "Beachhead" 30 years ago.

Jean brought her arm up to her face to see the hands on her watch; so far she'd been in this hospital for about 12 hours. The car hadn't exploded so the MPs had waited until the paramedics arrived and let them remove her from the crushed corvette and rush her off to the hospital. She feigned going in and out of consciousness but she did remember Decker in the ambulance with her on the ride to the hospital. Of course she knew it would look bad if word ever got out that the army had left the scene of a crime and a car crash victim unattended to die; but she knew now that they were in the privacy of a hospital, the only reason he hadn't turned tail and resumed his hunt for the A-Team was because he couldn't let this go. She had driven right at him and crashed her car into his, there had to be a reason for that and he wanted to know what it was. This was a waiting game and that was something Decker would be an expert at; being an army man he probably majored in patience. Well let him wait, she would make him wait. She would be out cold every time somebody came into this room, she wouldn't wake up when the nurse made the bed checks, she wouldn't respond when the doctor's examined her in the morning, she wouldn't move a muscle when Decker came in tomorrow and tried talking to her.

Something would be wrong with her, something that the doctors couldn't diagnose, they wouldn't know why she wasn't waking up, why she wasn't responding to anything. As long as Decker insisted on taking up space on the hospital floors, she would wait him out, eventually he would leave, and she felt certain she had just as much patience as he did. Ignoring her bruises brushing against the mattress, she turned on her right side and drew her feet up and closed her eyes, preparing herself to be totally unresponsive when that door flew open and the nurse poked her head in to wake Jean up and see if she was asleep. She would make Decker wait until he finally left the hospital without the information he had come to get. The longer she could make him wait, the longer he had to put off chasing after Hannibal and the others. Hannibal was right, the problems of the dead could wait; but as long as the A-Team was alive, and Decker the great white was sniffing the blood in the water, and she was in the vicinity, she was going to be the cookie cutter fish that took a bite out of him and kept him distracted.


	5. Chapter 5

Two o' clock in the morning and all was well, at least as far as Murdock could tell anyway. Face had already done his watch and now it was Murdock's turn, B.A. would be next and Hannibal would get the last watch, to coincide nicely with him being the first one up in the morning. As he quietly marched back and forth around the house, he could see Hannibal asleep in the chair in the living room with his head tilted to the side. He was sure this all wasn't necessary, just an extra precaution to take; Murdock didn't really think any of them believed Bullen or anybody else would try and break into the house, especially tonight, but on the offchance somebody would, they wouldn't be caught off guard.

He made his way into the kitchen again and he checked the back door and checked all the windows and made his way around to the pantry and to the downstairs bathroom, and checked all the windows, checked the basement door, it was still locked, and went back to the kitchen. The only light on in the whole house at this time of night was a small light over the sink, Janis had explained that it was always left on, day and night, and to turn it off now would only draw more attention to the household. Maybe but it also meant when he made the rounds through the kitchen that he'd be leaving a silhouette on the blinds when he went past and if anybody outside was watching, they'd know there was somebody in the house.

Murdock looked around the room again, not expecting to find anything out of the ordinary, just killing a little time before he started patrolling the rest of the house again. With the help of the kitchen light he could see half of the room in a sickening yellow hue, the dishes in the rack on the counter, the crushed soda cans on the other side of the sink, the freshly cleaned stove beside the cupboards, and the knife rack directly over the stove. Wait a minute…Murdock went over to the knife rack and confirmed what he thought he saw, one of the knives was missing. He looked on the counter and in the sink and in the dish rack and on the kitchen table and didn't see it anywhere. He remembered they had all been in place before dinner, and he also remembered Janis saying that she couldn't stand having anything out of place. Based on the size of the slot it belonged in, it was a fairly large knife for the kitchen variety, and Murdock couldn't figure out what it meant. He hated to wake Hannibal up but maybe the colonel would have some idea about it. He went back into the living room and got right next to the man sleeping in the chair and tried whispering to him, "Pssst, Hannibal."

"Mm," he grumbled in his sleep.

Murdock reached out with one hand and shook Hannibal slightly to get his attention.

"Hm-wh-wha…what's going on?" Hannibal asked as he started to become alert.

"Sorry to wake you up, Colonel, but I need to talk to you for a minute," Murdock told him.

"What is it, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.

Just as Murdock opened his mouth to tell Hannibal what he'd found, they heard somebody screaming from upstairs and both men took off for the stairs and made their way up in the dark.

Somebody turned the lights on and all four commandos reached the second floor at approximately the same time and realized the noise was coming from Alexis's room. Hannibal was the first one to reach the door but John and his wife had already beaten him to the punch and gotten in to her first; but between the two of them he could see what was going on and it made his heart jump in his throat. Alexis was standing on her bed screaming at her father and she had the kitchen knife in her hand and was stabbing it in the air at him as he tried to get close to her. The knife slashed out again and this time she cut him and the knife stabbed a gash down the whole length of his hand; he yelped in pain and took a step back, Hannibal grabbed John and pulled him back towards the door and told him, "Stay back."

Hannibal didn't know what was going on but he was going to put an end to it, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around one hand and took a step back into the room when he felt somebody grab him and stop him. He was surprised to see it was Murdock.

"I'll get her, Colonel," Murdock said as he shrugged his arms out of his bomber jacket and explained, "My jacket's thicker than yours." He wrapped it around his hand and slowly moved towards the bed and kept his covered hand out as if it was a shield. Alexis acted like she was in a trance, she wasn't screaming now and she had her eyes closed, but her whole body rocked back and forth and she kept the knife gripped in both hands with the blade aimed at him.

"It's alright, honey, it's your old buddy, Murdock, remember me?" he asked in a calm, friendly voice. She swung at him once with the knife and he moved back, but remained calm as he advanced again and said, "Remember me? Remember I told you all about my dog Billy and my friend Captain Cab…" he saw his chance and took it and wrapped his arm crushingly around her and with his free hand pinned her wrist so she couldn't stab him. Alexis screamed as he maintained his hold on her and worked the knife away from her and kicked it over towards the door, with his other hand free he wrapped his other arm around her and spoke soothingly to her and tried to get her to calm down as she screamed and struggled against him.

"It's alright, sweetie, nobody's going to hurt you," he told her as he shifted his weight to maintain a firm hold on her, "Don't worry, honey, everything's going to be okay."

The fight left the little girl and she broke down crying as she said in a terrified voice, "They came into the house, they were going to kill us…"

* * *

Face saw by his watch that it was 3:30 in the morning when he heard Janis's footsteps coming down the stairs. He saw her come into the living room and he asked, "Finally get her to sleep?"

"Yeah," the mother answered exhaustedly as she collapsed in the armchair beside him, "I never thought I'd get her to calm down."

John stood at the window in the living room looking out into the darkness, "Just what the hell are we supposed to do now?" he asked.

"Get your family and get out of town," Hannibal told him.

John turned around to reply but Hannibal cut him off, "From the start this guy's been trying to run you out of town, he doesn't want to come into this house while you're here…so let him think you're running. We haven't been able to find what he's looking for, but if he thinks you've skipped town, he'll come here and lead us right to it and then we'll have him red-handed. Mr. Murtaugh, your daughter is in fear of her life, she stuffed the knife in her pillowcase to reach it at a moment's notice to kill somebody, until Bullen's out of the picture, she's not going to feel safe here."

"Where'll we go?" Janis asked.

"Do you have any family you can stay with?" Hannibal asked.

She thought about it before answering, "My sister Eileen, she's in Santa Ana."

"First thing in the morning, you pack your bags, load up your car, and get out of here, leave the rest to us," Hannibal said, and he turned to John and added, "And while you're gone, I'd recommend getting that hand stitched up, you're going to need it."

John looked down at his hand that was wrapped in gauze that was still getting soaked through with the blood after being changed twice. He knew they didn't have any choice, and he hated having to admit it.

Face about jumped out of his chair when he heard something that sounded like a wounded moose, but he realized it was just B.A. yawning as he too came down the stairs and joined the others in the living room.

"How's Jamie?" he asked.

"He's alright," B.A. answered as he went over to the couch and sat down beside Murdock and Hannibal, "Finally got _him_ back to sleep too, that freaked him out, Hannibal."

"I'm sure." Hannibal turned and looked at Murdock and commented, "Though you seemed to handle yourself rather well, Captain."

Murdock yawned and replied, "Well, Colonel, I got a bit more experience with people suffering psychotic breaks than the rest of you do."

"A psychotic break?" Janis repeated, "Are you trying to say she's crazy?"

Murdock put his hands up as a cue for her to calm down and he told her, "There are worse things to be in this world than crazy, ma'am, take it from me, but what I meant was your daughter has suffered a nervous breakdown. She's _not_ crazy, she just can't take anymore of this, she needs to be taken somewhere that she feels safe until this is over."

"And once it's over?" Janis asked and looked around at the men, "_Will_ she be normal? Or will this happen again?"

Murdock could tell what was beneath the surface of this without digging, the real question was psychiatric help. Despite the progress psychiatry had made in more recent years it was still considered something of a voodoo mumble jumble and definitely not anything that anybody would boast about; instead it was something that most people, normal or crazy, tried to hide, that seemed to be the new big secret, that somehow the world would fall apart if it was discovered you were seeing a therapist. And yet…based on his own experiences with them he could understand the woman's hesitancy, he couldn't imagine having to deal with those kinds of people when he was 10.

"I just don't get it," John spoke up, "What possessed her to do it?"

"She thought her life was in danger, and yours," Hannibal pointed out, "She was doing what she thought was necessary to ensure survival for this side and not the other's."

"A 10 year old child," Murtaugh looked at his bandaged hand, "When I was that age we would've never even thought of such a thing."

"The world changed drastically after Vietnam," Hannibal reminded him, "People are starting to prove there are actually few limits as to what someone can do. It's a whole new world now, a lot more violent, children are no exception, unfortunately. But something I've noticed, this guy Bullen seems to be hesitant to actually pull the trigger, he's taken great lengths to scare you out first."

"But what's it supposed to all mean?" Murtaugh asked him.

"That, I'm _not_ sure about, yet," Hannibal told him.

* * *

"Mr. Murtaugh, I can understand what you've been through but I still wish you'd reconsider," Hannibal told John the next morning as the man hurriedly loaded up his car.

"I'm sorry to have to let you and your friends go like this, Mr. Smith, but I simply _cannot_ take this anymore; my business is ruined, my family has been threatened, my children are terrified, I just don't have the nerves to put up with anymore threats. I'm not going to gamble on my family's lives, I _have_ to get out of here, and I think a fresh start in Santa Ana is just what we need."

"Do you really believe that?" Hannibal asked, "If you run from this guy now you're going to be running from people for the rest of your life."

"What choice do I have?" John replied, "Max Bullen is not going to let this thing go, he's going to keep threatening me until one of us dies and I am _not_ going to jail for murder."

"Well," Hannibal sighed in disappointment, "If you really feel that way I guess I can't stop you, but I still think you're making a mistake by turning tail and leaving."

"You can believe whatever you want to, Mr. Smith," Murtaugh told him as he closed up the car, "But I'm cutting my losses and getting my family out of here, and taking them somewhere where we'll be safe and we won't have to deal with a bunch of thugs in suits coming into my workplace and destroying everything I've worked for."

He got Janis and the kids in the car, then he got behind the wheel and drove them out of there, leaving Hannibal at the end of the driveway standing in the dust.

"Good luck, Mr. Murtaugh," he said, "I hope you find it." And with an air of defeat, he went over to the van, got in the passenger seat, and they went around the block, then hid the van, and walked back from the other side and crept in through the back of the house before anybody could spot them.

"I must say, Hannibal, your acting skills are improving immensely," Face commented cynically.

"That was the easy part," Hannibal said, "Now we wait for Bullen and his boys to find out Murtaugh's gone, and come here for what he thinks is his."

"In the meantime we continue the Easter egg hunt without any clue where the rabbit went, is that right?" Face asked.

"Yep," Hannibal nodded, "With them gone, most of their small stuff went with them, so now we only have the big stuff to look through, and we know what we're looking for, enough money to choke a horse, or maybe even the whole Kentucky Derby."

Murdock whipped his lips inside out as he neighed like a horse and drew one foot back and forth to scratch the floor with the toe of his sneaker and said, "The racers are waiting at the starting gates, they're ready…and they're off!" He broke into a run and wound up getting choked as his neck collided with B.A.'s outstretched arm.

"If you was a horse, fool," B.A. told him, "The only use you'd have would be glue. Now quit messing around and let's get to work."

* * *

It was night before anybody came to the house. A car with no headlights on pulled up to the curb in the dark and three men got out. They found the door unlocked and showed themselves in; they shone their flashlights around the house to see where everything was, and they made their way over to the dining room, behind the table, and down on the floor by the window where the air vent was. Tools were taken out and the screws were taken out of the vent and the grate was lifted up and out, and the man closest to the new hole in the floor reached in and pulled out a bag. He unzipped it, felt through the contents and was pleased with his find.

And that was when the lights came on.

"Max Bullen I presume," Hannibal said as he moved away from the light switch and stepped further into the room to greet the uninvited guests.

The man lying on the floor with the bag in his hand had to be Max Bullen; the other two men in the room were a couple of the flunkies who had come to the shop the other day, but the man of the hour was one that Hannibal hadn't seen before, but automatically had him pegged as being the brains behind this whole mess.

"Of course, it could've saved us a lot of trouble if we'd just waited around for you to get the money out," Hannibal explained, and at the mention of 'we', B.A., Face and Murdock appeared in the doorways from the kitchen and the front hall, all with guns drawn, and Hannibal continued, "You see we found that bag in the air vent about an hour ago…but we didn't take it out, thought it'd be better if when the police came they found _your_ fingerprints on it and the money instead." With his gloved hands, Hannibal took the bag from the dumbstruck man and he glanced at the bills and asked, "What do you think that comes to, Face, about $50,000 at least?"

"_At least_," Face agreed, "And I'll bet he didn't get it playing bingo at the church."

"You know, Face," Hannibal said as he closed the bag, "_I'll_ bet that this would just about cover the costs that Mr. Bullen owes us and John Murtaugh for all the damages he's caused."

"I think you're right, Hannibal," Face answered with a cheeky grin.

"Of course," Hannibal switched to a slightly more somber tone as he continued, "It wouldn't do any good to simply take _this_ money as compensation, naturally it'll have to be inspected by the police to see if the serial numbers match with any stolen money…so that means we'll have to collect the damages from Mr. Bullen _directly_ before he goes to jail for the next 20 years."

"Sounds to me like we're all going for a little ride, Colonel," Murdock said as he kept his gun aimed at Bullen.

"Could be, Captain," Hannibal agreed, "Alright, everybody outside."

B.A. grabbed Bullen, Face grabbed one goon and Murdock grabbed the other and they walked the men out. Halfway to the van, Murdock said to his captive, "Oh by the way, I've got something for you." He let go of the man and when he turned around, Murdock punched him in the jaw and knocked him down and told the man, "That's a gift for Alexis."

"And this is one for Jamie," B.A. added as he grabbed Bullen and threw the man clear over his head and sent him flying through the air for a few feet before the inevitable crash landing.

* * *

Two days. Two days of being shut up in this damn hospital with nothing to do, and that idiot Decker still waiting outside for an update. Maybe Jean's patience couldn't last as long as his after all, but Decker had the easy job; he could get up, walk around, pester the nurses and the doctors for an update, go to the cafeteria for some of the lousy coffee and the cold food, walk around the hospital again, while she was stuck in this damn bed without the TV on, nothing to read, nobody to talk to, and she had to pretend to be out cold every time somebody came into this room. She threw herself back against the mattress with a huff of frustration; this must've been what made Murdock snap after Vietnam, not crashing his plane but being locked up in a hospital surrounded by incompetent boobs who called themselves doctors and being stuck in one room all day with nothing to do. No wonder he acted like he did, if she had to spend much more time in this bed getting sores, _she'd_ go bonkers too.

A light bulb went off in her head. That night when they'd gone to the cemetery, Murdock had told her about Decker coming to see him at the V.A. to see for himself if he truly thought Murdock was crazy. And despite the grade A performance Murdock said he'd put on for the colonel's privilege, he'd still been left with the feeling that Decker didn't quite buy it. How could he not? Murdock was a professional at acting crazy, nobody could do it better than him; but of course she reminded herself, there wasn't a lot of competition there either. Crazy people tried to act normal, and normal people who tried to act insane always came up very short compared to Murdock, their heart just wasn't into it like his was. Well…maybe _she_ would go crazy too. Unresponsiveness was a start but it wasn't good enough, and if she acted crazy at least it would get her up and out of this bed and let her move around and talk to people. Maybe she could try talking to herself and build up some practice before she started seeing an audience.

Another thought occurred to her, if she acted insane and drove Decker nuts with her inability to straightly answer any of his questions, he would probably leave the hospital sooner than he would if he was waiting for her to regain consciousness. And if that happened, he would resume his witch hunt for the A-Team sooner…but she'd already managed to buy them two days, surely that had to be enough time that he couldn't pick up their trail again, didn't it? Well in any case she'd bought them a little time, but now she decided it was time to have some fun. But the first thing she had to do was let people know she was up, so she crawled along on the bed and over exaggerated just how much pain she was in by howling like a madman before rolling over the edge and falling on the floor.

The door opened and several people came in, she felt hands grabbing her and helping her to her feet and she saw a couple of doctors and nurses in white asking her how she felt, if she was in any pain, did she know who she was or what state she was in or what the date was? And behind them came Decker and a couple of the MPs.

"Well?" Decker asked them before they had a chance to examine her.

"She just woke up, Colonel," one of the nurses explained, "We need to examine her."

"You do that, and I'll question her," he said as he went over to Jean. She forced herself to pay as little attention to this anal retentive man as was possible, and in fact when he spoke to her, she looked in the opposite direction from where he was. And the louder he spoke, the more she turned her head the other way, as if he were standing on the other side of her.

Decker grabbed her and forced her to face him, but she tilted her head to the side and let her eyes roll around in her head, he placed his hands on either side of her face and forced her to hold still and tried to get her to look at him. She didn't, so he tilted her head up and pressed his thumbs against her eyelids to hold them open.

"Look at me," he said to her, "Do you know who I am? Do you remember ramming your car into mine two days ago?"

No response, she forced herself not to try and blink, let him think she was so far out of it she couldn't be found.

He let go of her eyelids and let her head droop and he said into her ear in his voice that naturally screamed intimidation, "Does the name Colonel Roderick Decker mean anything to you?"

"D…De...Deck…Decker," she said, jolting a little with every sound she made, and paused as if she was trying to process the information, then she shook her head slowly, sadly, "No…no…no Decker…wait, yes!" she shot up on the bed, "Yes…"

"Well, now we're getting somewhere," he said to her.

"Yes," Jean nodded her head and placed her hand on her chest, "_I'm_ Colonel Roderick Decker."

Decker about hit the ceiling when she said that. Then she leaned back on the bed and said in a slight British accent, "I want a cup of tea, and I want my secretary to put me through to the Pentagon, and tell Gorbachev if he doesn't surrender, then I'm going to bomb the daylights out of him."

"What the hell is going on here?" Decker asked one of the doctors, who responded that tests would have to be run to check for brain damage, internal bleeding, etc., and Jean heard all of this but paid no attention to it as she carried on with her list of demands as Colonel Decker of the United States Army. So this was the pressure of a performer, the want to laugh at the trouble she was causing was so great but she could not and instead must maintain a straight stone face, which she managed to pull off with what appeared to be no effort, but it was all she could do not to drop on the floor laughing at the expressions on Decker's face.

* * *

"Amy, for the last time will you just check, please?" Face said into the telephone the next morning. It had been a long night and nobody had gotten any sleep, Bullen and his gang had been tied up for the police to conveniently find, along with the money, and once that was taken care of, Hannibal had called John to let him know he and his family were safe to come back, and that they had the money to cover the damages done to the store. They were waiting for the family to get back and to give them the money before they took off and returned to Los Angeles. During the night Hannibal had tried again to call Jean's house, and once again he'd gotten no answer, three times. So this morning Face had decided to call Amy to go down to the studio and see if she was working there today, and if so, to find out what she had found from the newspapers. As Face carried on in his argument with Amy, Murdock sat in a chair on the other side of the room and watched this with an amused look on his face like he was watching the fight on TV.

"Hey there's nothing I'd rather do than come back and look into the matter myself," Face told the woman on the other end of the line, gesturing with his free hand as if she was right there in the room with him, "But for some reason Hannibal has decided we need to stick around here for one more day before we come back. For the last time, the set is for the Kamikaze Racer, you won't be able to miss it, just look for the white corvette…no that is not a joke! No, Amy, you don't know this girl, she has _no_ social life, she most likely spends her nights at the cemetery reading tombstones, but she _still _should've been home at some point to pick up the phone. Amy…Amy, will you just do it, please? Okay," he was starting to wear down as apparently was the argument, "You're a dear, okay, goodbye."

Murdock snickered as Face hung up the phone and told him, "You know Face, you two are so cute when you fight, you're perfect together."

"Oh come on, Murdock, you know Amy's not my type," Face replied.

"Why not? She's a woman ain't she?" Murdock asked.

"So's Nancy Reagan but I wouldn't date her either," Face told him.

"Well that's just as well," Murdock responded, "I don't think Ronnie would allow it."

"Ha ha ha," Face dryly remarked.

A couple hours later, Murtaugh's car pulled up front and he and his family got out and went up to the house where Hannibal was waiting for them on the porch.

"It's really over now?" Janis asked him, "You're sure of that?"

"Positive," Hannibal answered, "With the list of charges against Bullen and everybody who works for him, the whole lot of them are going to be behind bars for at least 20 years. Then there's the matter of the money."

"There really _was_ money in this house?" Janis asked.

"Under the air vent in the dining room," Hannibal explained, "Tens of thousands of dollars which were promptly turned over to the police for their treasury agents to find out where it came from. I shouldn't worry though because I'm sure this will cover the costs to replace and repair everything that was broken in your shop." He took a roll of bills out of his pocket and gave it to John, who stared down at the money with his bottom jaw dropped.

"Where did you get this from?" he asked.

"Oh we helped Max make a withdrawal from his personal safe deposit box," Hannibal answered.

"Including our fee," Face added.

"I can assure you, he _won't_ be back to give you anymore trouble," Hannibal told John, "So call who you have to, and start rebuilding."

"Thank you, Mr. Smith, you don't know how much this means to us," Murtaugh said.

"Oh," Hannibal glanced over at the kids who looked like normal children once again and he replied, "I think we can guess."

* * *

The doctors had run every test imaginable on Jean to find out if there was any brain damage and they couldn't find anything to explain why she was acting the way she was. Every so often she would switch gears and do something else that was equally weird and just as equally confused the hell out of Decker, who watched all her performances not in amusement but in frustration. She alternated between not knowing who she was, who he was, where she was or what was going on, and being somebody else with an established name and identity. Decker had been present for most of the tests and every time after the doctors finished, he tried to get some answers out of her again. She didn't know what he was expecting to get from her, she was supposed to be crazy, and she took advantage of that every chance she had.

"Do you eat the food here?" she asked him, and shook her head, "Never do that, do you have any idea _where_ the kitchen is in this place? _Right_ next to the morgue! Why would anybody put them together like that? Where do you suppose they get their ice from? How do you suppose they keep the ice cream cold, hmm? I'm convinced they wrap the corpses around it until it's serving time." Her whole body cringed and shook at that thought.

After the tests had been completed, Jean had walked back to her room behind the doctor, and in front of Decker and one of the MPs. Along the way another idea had occurred to her. She wondered if Decker knew about Billy, and if he did, if two people who had never met shared the same 'delusion', as she knew the rest of the world saw Billy, did that make the delusion anymore real, the crazy people anymore sane, the normal people any less sane? Well, there was one way to find out. Halfway back to the room she stopped abruptly and Decker walked into her and the MP walked into him and the three of them fell down like dominoes.

"What's the idea of stopping?" Decker asked her when they started to untangle themselves.

Jean craned her neck back and looked at him as though _he_ were the crazy one and she swung her arm to gesture and said, "Didn't you see that dog?"

"What dog?" Decker and the MP both asked.

"The dog," she repeated, and continued to gesture as she said, "The little dog with the collar and the big name tag that says 'Billy'!"

Aha, so Decker _did_ know about Billy, the look on his face couldn't possibly mean anything else. They got up and returned to her room, and once there, Decker managed to talk the doctors into leaving him alone with her for a few minutes and the doctors agreed. Jean didn't know what it was Decker had planned but whatever it was, she would've preferred not going through this in the customary paper gown courtesy of the hospital; she would rather do this in her regular clothes but as it was she would have to add further to her apparent insanity by not caring how she looked coming out of this, though she could already tell it wouldn't be pretty.

She hadn't had any I.D. on her when they brought her in, and of all the names she'd given them in the last few hours, nobody had decided any of them would be suitable for calling her. So Decker just addressed her as, "Ma'am, why don't you tell me some more about the dog?"

"Dog?" she repeated, pretending she didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

"The dog you saw running through the corridor outside," Decker reminded her, "The dog named Billy."

"Dog," Jean said again, this time differently, as if she was testing the three syllables of the three letters together to see if they worked.

"Where did you first see this 'dog'?" Decker asked her.

"D-o-g," Jean drew the word out slowly again and started to lower herself from the bed onto the floor.

"What kind of dog is it, ma'am? Is it a big dog, little dog, German shepherd, bulldog, what kind is it?" Decker wanted to know.

"D-o-g," Jean said again, practically growling it this time. By now she had lowered herself onto her hands and feet and she glared at Decker murderously and said, "Dog, go…" and she let out a loud, inhuman growling bark and lunged at Decker. He jumped back but she lunged at him again and this time she grabbed hold of his pant leg with her teeth and she growled and jerked her head from side to side to rip it, then she proceeded to bite him on the leg. Decker yelped in pain and kicked her with his other foot and it knocked her back, but she got up again and growled like a dog that swallowed a bear whole.

The door opened and a doctor and an MP came in and they froze at the door and saw what Decker saw. Jean was positioned in the middle of the floor on her hands and feet, her tongue hanging clear out of her mouth and pools of saliva were running out of her mouth and building up into a puddle on the floor as she growled and snarled and showed her teeth and her beady little eyes. She lunged at them again and all three of them backed out the door and closed it behind her. Jean dropped down on her stomach with her arms underneath her and rolled over onto her back and stuck all fours in the air and closed her eyes with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth and a big grin on her face.

* * *

"I couldn't get a hold of Amy, and she hasn't called us," Face told Hannibal on the drive back.

"Well then the only thing we can do is go down to the movie lot and have a word with the Kamikaze Racer herself," Hannibal replied, "Jean might be stubborn but I can't see her going 3 days without getting in touch with us."

"You think the guys that jumped her in the graveyard found her again?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know," Hannibal said, "But we're going to find out."

"Speaking of which, I heard something interesting on the police band earlier," Face told Hannibal, "That money Bullen was after…"

"Yeah?"

"The serial numbers go back to a batch of money reported in a bank robbery…from 1979."

Hannibal slowly turned his head around to see the lieutenant in the backseat, "Not by chance the _same_ bank robbery of 1979 that the money Lynch was found with a year ago having in his possession?"

Face nodded, "It turns out over $100,000 was pinched from that bank, and what happened to it after that is anybody's guess."

"Dirty money sho' do know how to travel," Murdock commented.

Within half an hour they were back home in L.A. and headed down to the movie studio to find Jean and find out what was going on. They found the set for the Kamikaze Racer and saw the title character walking around in the full body suit and helmet as everybody waited for the scene to be set up just right to resume filming. Face went over to the Racer and poked him in the back and said, "Hey Jean, what's the idea of not answering your phone? You know how long we've been trying to call you?"

The Racer removed the white helmet and turned around, revealing it was a young man, who looked as confused as Face now felt.

"Sorry, I thought you were somebody else," he said and inched his way back towards the others.

"What happened?" Hannibal asked.

Face shrugged his shoulders and said simply, "It's not her, Hannibal."

The director quickly became aware of four uninvited guests on the set and he didn't take kindly to their presence, and made it well known. Hannibal started to explain why they were there but the other man cut them off explaining he already told the woman reporter that their stunt woman was in the hospital, she had crashed one of the movie cars before filming even began. Hannibal found out where she was being kept in and the four commandos got back to the van and raced to the hospital to see Jean and find out what had happened.


	6. Chapter 6

They arrived at the hospital that the director had given them the address for and Face went up to the front desk to speak to the administrative nurse about Jean Rhodes and see if he could find out what room she was being kept in and what was the matter with her. Hannibal, B.A. and Murdock stayed behind near the exit, but out of the way of everyone who was coming and going. They talked amongst themselves quietly while they watched Face from the back as he spoke with the nurse and apparently didn't get the answers he was looking for. After a minute, Face came back to them shaking his head.

"Hannibal, she can't possibly be in this hospital, you must've gotten the wrong address," Face told him.

"How come?" Hannibal asked.

"Because," Face explained, "There's only one woman in this entire hospital with the last name Rhodes and she's just had a baby."

"A baby?" Murdock repeated, and let out a slow air leaking gasp as he fell back in a mock faint and landed against B.A., who promptly shoved him away and told him, "Quit messing around you crazy fool."

"Murdock," Hannibal said, "Do you still have that picture Face took of you two at the hotel last year?"

Murdock nodded and pulled it out of his pocket. Hannibal caught a glimpse at what he already knew was there; Murdock and Jean dressed alike in shorts and Hawaiian shirts from when they checked into a hotel as the eccentric Tuttle family. He went up to the front desk and said to the nurse, "You're telling me that this woman is not in the hospital as a patient? She's in movies so she may have come in under a different name."

"Oh yeah, _her_," the nurse nodded, "Sure, she's here, for three days now she's been here, she's been driving everybody in this hospital crazy."

"That sounds like her alright," Murdock said.

"Are you related to her?" the nurse asked.

"Yes," Hannibal said, taking the lead on this one, "I'm her father and these are her brothers."

"Brothers?" the nurse repeated, eyeing B.A.

"He's my nurse," Hannibal answered, "Have to take him everywhere with me on account of my heart. Now can you tell me what room my daughter is in? We just got back in town and a neighbor told us she'd been in a car accident."

"Room 104, upstairs," the nurse told him.

"Thank you," Hannibal said, and they were off for the elevator.

* * *

After Decker had gotten a tetanus shot, he tried speaking to Jean again but she'd had another trick ready for him. She sat on her bed with the sheet pulled out and wrapped around her like a straitjacket, and halfway through his questions she wrapped part of the sheet around her neck and managed to choke herself with it like it was a noose; she fell on the floor gasping for air and started to turn blue when the doctors finally managed to get her out of it. After that, Decker got a warning from the doctors that his presence was apparently not helping her any and only making everyone else in the hospital nervous and army or no army, his company there was no longer appreciated. He had been tempted to pull rank with the hospital but knew in the long run it would only set up more trouble for him; so, reluctantly admitting defeat here, he and his men had left the hospital, and left Jean alone.

Once they were gone, Jean's attending doctor seemed to catch on to just why she had been acting so outrageous and told her that the military motorcade was gone. Whatever was going on had not been any official order by the army, so nobody wanted them hanging around anymore than was necessary and the staff were only too happy to be rid of Colonel Roderick Decker and the military police. Jean didn't know her doctor very well, but she liked the woman after hearing this, she seemed to be finely in tune to what was going on without knowing too much for her own good. Once that excitement had died down, Jean resumed her human personality and climbed back up into her miserable hospital bed and tried to get back to sleep. Somehow she figured that Decker might come back, and if he did, as long as she was in this hospital, he wasn't going to catch her acting normal.

Speak of the devil she thought as she heard somebody knocking on the door to her room. Well, she knew it wasn't any of the doctors or nurses because they didn't believe in knocking, only in throwing the door open and sticking their heads in any time they got the feeling to. Of course she knew ignoring whoever was there wouldn't make them go away, but she wasn't going to let them in of her own accord either. She kept her back to the door and buried her head under the pillows and let the person outside knock a couple more times before she finally asked in a low growling voice, "Who is it?"

She heard the door open, followed by a familiar voice saying, "Acme Window Cleaners at your service, ma'am."

Jean flung herself up and turned around and saw Hannibal standing in the doorway with a small smirk on his face. He clearly had no idea that they had just missed Decker by only about 10 minutes, and if he didn't know it, she wasn't going to tell him. As she got up, she saw Hannibal move aside and Face, Murdock and B.A. also came into the room.

"How'd you guys know I was here?" she asked.

"Your director told us," Hannibal told her, "How're you doing, kid?"

"I'm alright," she said as she stood up.

Face and Murdock both couldn't help staring and they knew their eyes were wider than they should've been. When Jean got out of the bed and stood up they saw that she had a large bruise that was a mix of blood red and purple running down the length of her arm from the side of her wrist to her elbow, and had several large bruises of the same color on her left leg. For some reason though, the right side of her body didn't seem to have taken as much punishment when the car crashed.

"I'm alright, I've only been waiting around here for a few days because when the idiots brought me in, they cut off my suit and subsequently also the clothes I was wearing underneath it," she said as she went over to the men, "And I would've looked pretty ridiculous leaving the hospital like this. I look ridiculous enough traipsing through the hospital like this."

She looked to Murdock and saw that the pilot had absentmindedly wrapped his arms around himself and his jaw had dropped into a wide mouth gape.

"What's the matter, Murdock, you opposed to hugging other people now?" she asked him.

It took a couple of tries to get his mouth working again but he finally brought his bottom jaw up and said, "Uh, no," and unwrapped himself and put his arms around her, carefully since he could tell from the slight jerky movements she made that she was still in pain, and he couldn't help asking, "What the hell happened to you?"

She pulled away from him and said, "They're having all the movie cars checked again by the top mechanics in the business…those corvettes are _not_ made to withstand too much punishment. If this movie gets a sequel I'm going to make the suggestion they have this guy drive around next in a tank."

"But what happened?" Face asked her.

"Who knows," she shrugged, "The speedometer got up to 100, then 110, 120, then the wheel locked, and the next thing I know I'm flipped over, and the _next_ thing I know is I wake up here. But for the record, if I ever have to come here again, and I'm sure I will, the name to look under is Mattox, that's the name they know me by at the studio, nobody there knows me as Jean Rhodes either."

"How come?" Hannibal asked.

"Saves the trouble of changing it later on," she said.

"I see," Hannibal sarcastically replied, "Well when do the doctors say you can get out of here?"

"I can leave at any time," she answered, "I just need a change of clothes."

"We can arrange that," Face said, and turned for the door, "I'll be right back."

While he was gone, Hannibal took that opportunity to bring something else up, "The nurse said you've been here for three days, meaning you crashed the day that we went out to Fort Gulch."

"That's right," she said, "About fifteen minutes after you left the course, damnedest luck. I'm just lucky somebody saw the crash and called for help, because we weren't scheduled to start shooting for two more hours when it happened."

"I see, then you didn't have any time to find out what's going on at the cemetery," he said.

Jean slowly shook her head, "Sorry."

"No matter, now that we're back, we'll figure it out ourselves," Hannibal said.

"You mean you're done with the last mission already?" she asked.

"That's right," he answered, "Incidentally, Jean, has a woman reporter by the name of Amy Allen been in here to see you?"

"No, why?"

"No reason." Hannibal turned to Murdock and murmured into his ear, "We better find out what happened to Amy." To which Murdock only nodded his head in response, then he looked down and noticed also that Jean's left ankle was larger than her right one.

"Did that happen in the crash too?" he asked.

Jean looked down at her ankle as if she was only seeing it for the first time and said, "Yeah." In truth, that one had happened when she stopped and tripped Decker and his right hand man, but she wasn't about to tell them _that_ either.

Face returned a few minutes later with a suitcase and told Jean she could find something to wear out of the hospital in it; she disappeared into the bathroom for a minute and came out in a pair of Murdock's jeans and one of his T-shirts and an extra pair of his sneakers, which were a little large but they'd do until she got back home.

* * *

As soon as the team got Jean back to her house, her phone was ringing off the hook, as soon as all of them got in the door, she answered it, and while she obviously knew who it was on the other end, whatever they were talking about wasn't anything good.

"No…no, Dean, I don't know anything about it…I just got out of the hospital, what the hell _would_ I know about it? Dean…Dean, I'm going to hang up now, Dean, you can keep talking if you want to, but I'm hanging up now, goodbye."

"What was that all about?" Hannibal asked.

Jean looked at him with a confused look on her face, "One of the cameras is missing from the movie set, they think somebody stole it."

"What?" Hannibal asked.

"When did they notice it missing?" Face asked.

"About half an hour ago," she answered, "They can't figure out what happened to it."

"Was there film in it?" Murdock asked.

"They said a new reel, just started filming with it and now it's gone," Jean said, "At least I have an airtight alibi so they can't blame it on me."

"Would they?" Hannibal asked.

"I don't know but why would I steal one of the cameras?" she replied, "Why would _anybody_ for that matter? Oh well…" she said dismissively, "It can be their headache…at least there are two other guys who can do the driving so I've got a few days to sit home and let my ribs knit."

"Which reminds me," Hannibal told her, "I think we're going to take you up on your offer to stay here for a few days."

"How come?" Jean asked.

Hannibal pointed at her ankle, "Let's assume for a moment that the men who attacked you found out where you live, you just got out of the hospital, you live alone, you could be a good target for them if they'd ever decide to come here for you."

"You really think anything's going to happen to me?" Jean asked.

"I'm not up for taking the chance…we're back from a mission, we've got some free time on our hands, we can stay here and keep an eye on things."

"Besides," Murdock told her, "It'd be a good idea if you stayed off your foot for the next couple of days and let it heal, otherwise it'll look like a grapefruit for the better part of the month."

"That's not fair," Jean said, "You've got me at a disadvantage, the host can't be on bed rest while the guests are staying at the house."

"We can keep ourselves entertained," Hannibal assured her.

"Well…" Jean looked ready to admit defeat, because she knew there was no way to win against Hannibal's arguments, "If you're going to stay here, I need to get some more groceries, last couple of weeks the mice have been eating better than I have."

"Why's that?" Face asked.

"Because between filming on location and the graveyard shift at the cemetery, I've hardly been home except for a couple hours of sleep before going back to work," Jean answered.

The phone rang again and Jean snagged the receiver by the cord, "Hello? Oh hi, Mom…oh…you have? Well I haven't been here for the last few days…I've been at the hospital…" her eyes rolled as she tried to get a word in after that, "Mom…Mom…I'm alright, I just had a little accident…yes, the doctors said I'm fine, just need to take it easy for a few days…Mom…Mom, I've got a few friends staying with me for a while, they want to say hi to you."

She reached over with her free hand and grabbed Face by his shoulder. She kept hold on the receiver so he craned his neck down to get his ear in place, "Hello, Mrs. Rhodes, it's Templeton Peck, remember me? Yes, I guess you do…"

Jean took the receiver away from his ear and gestured for Hannibal to speak next, "Hello, Mrs. Rhodes, this is Hannibal Smith…yes, yes she's alright, just a little banged up. Well you know what your daughter does for a living, don't you? Yeah…well, that's why she's the stunt driver, if she'd been the actual lead then she wouldn't have to do it. Uh-huh, and how are you? I see…" Hannibal reached over and grabbed Murdock to have him speak next.

"This is Captain Howling Mad Murdock signing on from the jungles of Zanzibar, who is this speaking? Hello Mama, what's up in the Big Apple? Oh, worms eh? Me? I'm fine as an aged wine…" Murdock felt the cord being pulled away from him and he wrapped it up, "Sorry Mama, gotta let you go, there's a big angry mudsucker here who wants to say hello."

"Gimme that phone, fool," B.A. said as he grabbed it away from him and put the receiver to his ear, "Hello?" he smiled and said, "Hey there, Mama, yeah it's us…yeah…yeah…well don't worry, Mama," he glanced at Jean through one eye and added, "We' gonna take good care of your little girl…yeah, okay, bye."

B.A. handed Jean back the phone and she spoke to her mother for another minute before hanging up.

"You didn't know she'd be calling?" Hannibal asked her.

"Believe me, Hannibal, I had other things on my mind in that hospital than calling home to tell my mother that I crashed my car and nearly got killed. Those kinds of things don't go over so well with mothers incase you didn't know. Now, if you'll give me a minute, I'll change into some of _my_ clothes and we can get the refrigerator stocked."

"Oh that's alright, Face and I can take care of that," Murdock told her.

"Fine, you can pick up _your_ stuff," Jean replied, "And I'll pick up _my_ stuff because you'll never get it right anyway, I can hobble around the grocery store just fine."

"Alright," Face gave in, "We'll go to the store, you can come with us," he turned to Hannibal, "What about you guys?"

"We'll stay here and make sure nobody steals the house," Hannibal answered with a straight face.

"Everybody's a comedian," Face groaned.

* * *

Jean changed into a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt and a pair of sandals so there wasn't anything pressing or brushing against her ankle or her bruises and she, Face and Murdock went to the supermarket, and Face quickly realized one reason why he would not particularly want Murdock for a roommate full time. As soon as Murdock got a shopping cart he ran away with it and grabbed one of just about everything he passed and put it in the cart, and when he wasn't looking Face took half of the items out and put them back on the shelves and Jean helped him. It didn't take long to get the cart full, even considering they were shopping for five people they were getting a lot of stuff.

"Remind me again, Face," Jean said, "Why we had to get six gallons of milk?"

"I'll give you one guess," Face told her, "B.A."

"How much can he drink?" Jean asked.

"Well that," Face pointed to the contents of the cart, "Might be enough to hold him over for a couple of days."

Jean rolled her eyes and looked behind her for Murdock but she didn't see him. They went back the way they had come and they found Murdock in the cookie aisle, grabbing several boxes of animal crackers.

"What're these for?" Jean asked as she grabbed a box from him.

"Dog biscuits," Murdock answered as if that explained everything. Jean turned to Face and asked him, "Huh?"

"It's a long story," he told her, "It's an idea we're working on for busting him out of the V.A. next time"

As if to emphasize on that, Murdock stuck his bottom lip out and whimpered like a hurt puppy before licking Face on the cheek.

"Down, boy," he said as he pushed Murdock back teasingly.

Murdock turned his back to Face and ran the sleeve of his bomber jacket across his tongue as he tried to get the taste of aftershave out of his mouth, "You just had to shave today, didn't you, Face?"

"Sure sure, this from a guy that ate shaving cream off a cardboard cake, you never complained about that one," Face reminded him.

"That was ze lemon, zis is just nasty," Murdock replied as he wiped his tongue on the palm of his hand.

"Alright, do we have everything we need?" Jean asked.

"I hope so," Face said, "Because this cart is getting hard to push."

"And no wonder," Jean said as she glanced over the six gallons of milk, 15 pounds of potatoes, a large slab of ribs, two bags of potato chips, three dozen eggs, half a dozen boxes of animal crackers, popcorn, a case of soda, two loaves of bread, ten pounds of hamburger, three boxes of cereal Murdock most likely picked up just for the prizes inside, half a dozen large steaks, two large frozen pizzas, one box of Bomb Pops, two pounds of butter, a pound of slivered ham, a couple jars of pickles, one frozen blueberry pie, two containers of radishes that in Jean's opinion looked like mutated worms but Murdock still wanted to get them, and two six packs of beer, "Appropriately we've got enough here to feed an army."

"I'll give you a hand, Face," Murdock said as he got next to him behind the cart and said in a winded voice, "Push!"

They got to the checkout lane and got everything bagged up and paid for and hauled it out to the van, dumped the groceries in the back, then Face and Murdock got in the front and Jean got in the back and Murdock drove them back to the house. On the way back, something occurred to Jean and she asked Face, "You said that part of the reason B.A. doesn't like flying is because Murdock's always the pilot and because he's crazy, right?"

"Well that's part of it," Face answered.

"But you never really call into question Murdock's ability to fly, isn't that right?" she asked.

Face looked over to the man driving and asked him, "Murdock, you want to take this one?"

"Naw that's okay Faceman," Murdock answered, "I want to hear how you answer this."

He would, Face thought.

"Murdock," Jean shifted towards him, "I've flown with you before, I know you're an expert at what you do and you know full well what you're doing."

"Why thank you, hon," he replied as he turned his head for a quick glimpse towards her before returning his eyes to the road.

"Hon? Oh great, now he's from Baltimore," Jean commented to Face, then returned to Murdock and said, "Now how do you expect me to believe that you're crazy when you can fly a plane with no error like you do?"

"What can I say?" Murdock shrugged helplessly, "The mind can remember the darnedest things after splitting into insanity."

Jean could tell she wasn't going to get anywhere with him on this one, so she let it go and continued with her original train of thought, "But the point is you're crazy, and that causes some people to question your ability to fly…but _nobody_ ever worries about you driving B.A.'s van when they know you're crazy…and why not?" she turned back to Face, "After all more people die on the road in crashes than flying, right?"

"Now that's a good point," Murdock said, "But don't bring it up in front of the angry mudsucker because then he'll just say I can't be trusted to drive anymore either."

"What _is_ his problem, Murdock?" Jean asked.

"Let's see, how can I put this?" Murdock tried to think, "It's difficult to explain, of course B.A.'s mind is so unusual and complex it takes more than just my own hands-on knowledge and expertise about it, I've been trying to get him in to see one of the doctors at the V.A. but you can guess how well that's been going."

Jean and Face looked at each other and Jean commented to him, "Makes you wonder who the crazy one really is."

"My vote still goes to Hannibal," Face told her.


	7. Chapter 7

"Well," Face said to Hannibal when they returned later that afternoon, "Did you ever manage to track down Amy?"

"Yes, _finally_," Hannibal answered, "She found out Jean was in the hospital, went to the hospital, found out there wasn't anybody there by that name, and she left."

"And she calls herself a reporter," Murdock said haughtily with his nose up in the air as he shook his head back and forth as he spoke.

"If you don't put your nose down, fool, I'm gonna rip it off," B.A. warned him.

Murdock put his hand over his nose and returned his head to its regular level and moved over towards the others.

"Well then how come she didn't call us sooner and let us know?" Face asked Hannibal.

Hannibal shrugged, clearly just as clueless as he was and said, "She said she tried but nobody answered."

"Nobody answered because the phone in the van didn't ring," Face reminded him.

"This whole week's been nothing but a comedy of errors," Murdock noted.

"And ain't anybody laughing," Jean said from where she was seated on the couch, "By the way, I should've told you before about the sleeping arrangements if you insist on staying here. There are two spare bedrooms upstairs, and there's one bedroom here on the ground floor."

"Three spare bedrooms, not bad for somebody living alone," Hannibal commented, "Are they furnished?"

"_Yes_ they're furnished, genius," Jean replied.

"Were you expecting company?" he asked coyly.

"Maybe just a family," Jean responded.

"It's definitely something to persevere towards," Murdock said as he sat down beside her elevated ankle.

"Anyway," Jean continued, "Either somebody's gonna have to double up or somebody's gonna have to sleep on the couch."

"Well that's no problem," Murdock told her, "Face and I can take one of the rooms upstairs."

"That just leaves the matter of who sleeps upstairs and who stays downstairs," Jean said.

"Oh I think it would be a good idea if _I_ took the other room upstairs," Hannibal told them, and turned to look at Face and Murdock and added, "Keep _these two_ out of trouble." He turned to the sergeant and said, "If you don't mind taking the room down here, B.A."

"Na man, that's fine with me," B.A. answered.

"Well that's settled," Jean said as she started to get up from the couch, "I'll go get started on dinner."

She felt something grab her from behind and realized it was B.A., and Hannibal told her, "I talked to your doctor at the hospital and she said for you to stay _off_ that ankle for the next few days as much as possible, so," his eyes traveled to the ceiling and he nodded his head in that direction and told her, "B.A.'s going to escort you upstairs and get you settled, and you can consider yourself relieved from your duties as our host."

"Meanwhile what am I supposed to be doing for the rest of the day?" Jean asked him.

"Relax," he said with a flash of his trademark grin.

"Relax," she scoffed, "If I do that I'll drop down dead. But notwithstanding, I'll go upstairs," she turned to B.A. and added, "Without anybody's help."

Despite that statement, Murdock got up from the couch and mouthed "I'll go with her" to the others and followed Jean out of the living room. He stayed enough behind her that she was halfway up the stairs before he started up behind her, and was just in time to catch her as she fell on her bad foot.

"I gotcha," he told her as he helped her get up again.

"Thanks, Murdock," she replied as he helped her get up the rest of the stairs.

"Don't mention it, hon," he said again, "Besides, I've been dying to see what your room looks like."

When they reached the upstairs hall, Jean pointed to the first door on the left and told him, "It's over here."

The door was already open so they went in, and Murdock looked around the place like a little kid trying to see all the rides in an amusement park at once, "Wow, this place looks like my room!"

Of course there were a few obvious differences, hers was minus the large arcade games and plus a full sized double bed, but still, it looked very much like a place he would stay at. It had everything: a nice large bed, a 20 inch TV on the dresser, a large stereo system with a wide collection of tapes, a floor-to-ceiling bookcase jammed full of books that at first glance looked like a lot he had read over the years, and scattered all over the room were pieces of costumes, small toys and odds and ends. A few objects that particularly stuck out for him were a Polaroid camera, a Snoopy Jews harp, a large half eaten chocolate bar, an automatic pistol, half a box of ammo, half a dozen books about movies left open to certain pages, and her teddy bear, the same one that her mother had given to B.A. when they went to find her last year.

Murdock helped Jean over to the bed though she insisted she could walk the rest of the way, and he set to work making sure she was comfortable, with two pillows behind her head and one under her ankle.

"Thanks Murdock," she said again.

"No problem," he told her, then asked, "Is it alright if I look around here for a while?"

"Go ahead," Jean replied, "I got nothing to hide."

He went over to the bookcase and tilted his head to the side to read the spines, "The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Peck's Bad Boy, Lucky Terrell, Philo Vance, Charlie Chan, Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, Bomba the Jungle Boy…" he read the spines of the next shelf and saw they were comics, "Batman, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Dan Dare…got quite a variety here, don't you?"

Jean just shrugged in response. Murdock pulled down one volume, "I read most of these when I was younger…" he grinned as he recalled, "I loved Lucky Terrell as a kid."

"Was that what made you want to be a pilot?" Jean asked.

"No, but it didn't hurt any either," he replied as he went over to the bed and asked, "Is it alright if I sit down here?"

"Go ahead," she answered.

He was careful not to get near her foot and he laid down on the other side of the bed alongside her and looked inside the book. Jean looked over at him and after a minute she asked him, "Murdock, can I tell you something?"

He closed the book and told her, "Why sure, you can tell me anything, oh, except who shot J.R. because I didn't see that episode and I don't want the ending ruined."

Jean leaned over towards him and whispered into his ear, "I didn't really flip that car during a practice run the other day…I crashed it into another car."

"Well that's nothing to be embarrassed about, it happens all the time," Murdock said, "Perfectly natural accident."

Jean almost laughed and she tried again, "It wasn't an accident, Murdock…I did it on purpose."

He looked at her and asked, "How come, they cut you off?"

"No Murdock," she shook her head, "It was Decker's car…after you guys left the course I saw the red lights coming up the road and I just hit the gas and drove right at Decker's car and hit him."

The look on his face was of mild shock but she knew whatever was going through his mind ran far deeper than he was letting on.

"What did he do to you?" was the first coherent question he managed to ask.

"Nothing really," Jean shook her head, "I figured if I crashed his car that would delay his finding your trail, and boy did it, see he wanted to know _why_ I crashed into him, so he was willing to wait around the hospital until I regained consciousness to find out. But I left him waiting for two days before I finally woke up so everybody could see it. He asked me a lot of questions, though none of them about you guys, I think he actually managed to forget about you for a while. You should've seen the look on his face when he peered in through the window and saw me all smashed up and covered in blood."

She was actually smiling, she was almost laughing in remembrance of it. Murdock was still trying to process this information, and he asked her, "How badly were you _really_ hurt?"

"Not very," she answered, "Just the bruises and bumps…oh I made him worry, I had some of those movie blood packets in my pockets and they smashed on impact when I hit the steering wheel and managed to pop one on the side of my head as well…had him going for a while, he insisted on riding in the ambulance with me. I guess he wanted to be present incase I died."

Murdock looked down at the bruise on her arm and the ones on her leg and he asked her, "Why didn't the right side of your body get bruised like that during the crash?"

"Well, I'll tell you, Murdock, I think stunt work in movies is almost comparable to being in the army, split second timing and decision can save or lose a lot of lives. Of course I've done this stuff for a while and I know a bit about how to crash and not get seriously injured…though I don't know if the guys at the studio would approve of what I did. It all came down to a matter of seconds, I had the car sped up and going at 80 miles steadily, and I took my foot off the gas, and I had it timed so I had just enough time to turn and lift my legs up on the front seat, turned to the side so the steering wheel didn't smash them, and after the impact, I turned back to my regular position and put my legs down on the floor again, which by now was also pretty smashed up. You see Murdock, I knew that if I hadn't done that, you could probably be calling me Blizzard right about now." She used her finger to draw a line across both her legs up at the thighs and said, "In most car accidents, when the front end gets smashed in, one of the first things to go is the legs, either through paralysis and permanent nerve damage, or through amputation. So I pulled them up and lay across the front seat, I hit my left arm against the wheel on impact, and when I swung back around, I hit my leg against the door, that's why it's bruised. So now you know it's not as bad as if the car had locked up and rolled, so you don't have to worry about me."

He fought hard not to give voice to the thought that was going through his mind at that time, which was 'well now I _wouldn't_ say thaaaat'.

"Why'd he finally leave? What did you tell him?" Murdock asked.

"Nothing really," Jean said, "I got stir crazy after 2 days of sleeping every time someone came in, so I decided to have a little fun at his expense. Every time he came back to question me, I was something or somebody else. I even told him that _I_ was Colonel Decker, and ooooh you should've seen the look on his face when I said that." She burst out laughing, "I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?" Murdock wanted to know.

"Decker had just left when you guys came into the hospital, as far as I know he doesn't have any idea where you guys are…and he didn't have any idea who I was, so he can't find out who or where I am which means you guys should be safe here for the time being. If I had told Hannibal what I had done, what do you think he would've said?"

"Well…I don't know," Murdock admitted, "But you don't think he'd do something crazy like go after Decker, do you?"

"Maybe not, but it's like B.A. says, when Hannibal gets on the jazz he gets dangerous, and I wouldn't entirely put it _past_ Hannibal to try hunting Decker for a change."

"Hmmm, that's true," Murdock said, "I _could_ see him trying that."

Of course they both knew the same thing, that Jean had nothing to worry about in the way of Murdock telling any of the others what she had just confided in him, he kept all her secrets. Though he couldn't resist asking, "So what did you do to make him leave?"

"I acted crazy until _he_ was about crazy and around that time he was driving the whole hospital crazy so they finally told him he had to leave, and boy did he hate that, but he didn't really have any choice, he's supposed to be hunting after you guys, and he'd already lost three days waiting around on me," she told Murdock, "I hope he chases his tail for a week." Another thought came to her and she asked Murdock, "How do you suppose _he'd_ react to having a gun to the back of his head?"

"I wouldn't try my luck on that one," he warned her, "He might just take you up on it."

Jean nodded sadly and asked rhetorically, "Who's the really crazy one around here?"

"Decker's not crazy," Murdock told her, "He's just _nuts_."

* * *

Murdock made sure Jean had her ankle on ice around the clock, every half hour the rag had to be wrung out and refilled, though when he came up once and found she'd fallen asleep he decided the ice could wait. He returned an hour later with two plates of burgers and potato chips, he'd brought her dinner up and kept her company while she ate, she didn't seem to catch onto it though and he was grateful for that. If she wanted to be left alone he would respect her wishes but he didn't like the idea of her being left up there alone with the four of them downstairs. He did leave her alone after dinner, but returned a couple hours later with a large bowl of popcorn, two sodas, and the newspaper's TV guide, with some story about keeping her company for a while and watching a movie together. He got the pillows fluffed up again and replaced them behind her head so she could see the TV better.

"What's on?" Jean asked him.

He held the TV guide in one hand and went over to the TV and messed with the dials with the other, "The Wizard of Oz is on channel 23 in a few minutes."

"I _hate_ that movie," Jean said as she rolled onto her side.

"How can you hate it?" Murdock asked, "That's positively un-American!"

"I prefer the old one," Jean told him, "Where nobody talked and nobody sang and the pirates came in a biplane to kidnap Dorothy."

"What one's that?" Murdock asked as he looked over to her suspiciously.

"_Very_ old one," she answered as she rubbed her eye, "Had Hardy in it as the Tin Man before he joined up with Laurel."

"No kidding," Murdock said as he went back to the bed, "I never knew that."

"Well the film's probably destroyed by now," Jean said, "I saw that one a _long_ time ago."

Murdock laughed but didn't comment on the irony of that one, if _anybody_ in this room was an expert on _a long time ago_, it would be him.

They managed to get halfway through the movie before Murdock noticed Jean had fallen asleep and was out cold. He thought if he tried to get up, the shift in the mattress would wake her up, so he stayed on the other side of the bed and watched the TV until 2 in the morning when Jean shot up in bed with a ragged gasp for breath and her eyes flew open in a momentary panic. After bunking with Face too many times over the years, he knew better than to reach over and grab her to get her attention, he just leaned over and asked her, "You alright?"

Jean closed her eyes and when she opened them again she seemed to remember where she was and she nodded, "What time is it?"

"2 A.M. and all's well," Murdock said as he finally got up from the bed and went over to shut the TV off, "The late, late shows have been running so long it's about time for the early, early exercise shows." He went back to the bed and sat down beside her and asked her, "Nightmare?"

Jean nodded again and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.

"What was it about?" he asked, not prying, just naturally curious.

"It's ridiculous," she tried to shrug it off.

No, he knew better than that. When dreams were ridiculous they didn't jerk you awake, they generally just kept going until they ended or an outside force woke you up. Only nightmares had this effect on people.

"Dreams are just the mind's subconscious way of bringing to light matters that need to be unearthed for internal peace of said mind," he told her, "Now come on, you know you can tell me anything, I've heard them all, I've thought up _most_ of them."

"Well probably not this one," Jean told him, "Uh…last year after we all met…I had this weird dream," she pointed at him, "You…all four of you had been caught by the army and were going to be executed…but you all killed yourselves before they could do it."

He knew about that, they all did, hell he had been the one to find it in her journal, but she had never known that they found out about that. And he knew it wouldn't do any good to let her know that now. It may have taken a year but she was finally actually telling him about it, that was some kind of breakthrough.

"And that's what happened now?" he asked her, having a good idea on what the answer was.

She slowly nodded, her eyes staring straight ahead and she was seeing past the TV, past the wall, so far ahead at something that it would never be found. Murdock reached over with one arm and pulled Jean towards him and kept his arm wrapped around her as he told her, "That's never going to happen, they're never going to catch us."

"What if they did though?" Jean asked.

"We'd escape, we always do," he told her, "Decker is not going to have the satisfaction of seeing us behind bars anywhere, so don't worry about it." He craned his neck down to see her face and saw her eyes were still looking ahead a million miles away, so he tried something else. "Hey, remember what we did last time we were all together and you were having nightmares and couldn't sleep?"

"No," she said after thinking about it for a few seconds. Her eyes had moved from side to side as she tried to remember, and they weren't staring ahead past the wall anymore.

Murdock placed his hand on the back of her head and gently repositioned it on his chest and told her, "Just put your ear over the old ticker here, that's what I used to do with Billy all the time when he was a puppy and had nightmares, and it always worked like a charm."

The effect must've been mutual because both of them fell asleep before too long. An hour later that was exactly how Hannibal found them, both asleep and Jean in Murdock's arms; apparently she was right, some things _never_ changed. Hannibal smiled to himself and turned off the lights and went back to his own room, which he wound up sharing with Face for the night. It hadn't been planned but when they'd come up for the night, Face stayed to talk with Hannibal for a while and that quickly became an hour, then two, and somewhere during it the lieutenant fell asleep in the chair by the bed. Hannibal didn't want to wake him up but helped him to stand up long enough to get him over to the bed and let him collapse there comfortably.

That was when it occurred to Hannibal that Murdock was probably in the room he and Face would be sharing for the night and would be wondering where Face was, so Hannibal had gone to see him but found the room empty. His next immediate thought was to check Jean's room, and he hadn't been too surprised by what he found. As he got into his side of the bed, the noise from the springs woke Face up and he realized where he was and asked Hannibal, "What's going on?"

"Nothing Face, go back to sleep," he told him.

"Where's Murdock?" Face asked.

"Asleep," Hannibal answered.

"Mmm," Face murmured as his head fell back against the pillow and he was out like a light almost immediately.

Hannibal agreed, it sounded like a good idea to him too. It had been a long day, and a long week for that matter, and he was glad to have it over with.

* * *

The next morning Jean was laying in bed and going out of her mind with boredom when somebody knocked at the door, she could tell by the knock that it was B.A. "Come on in, B.A., I'm dressed," she said. And she was, after Murdock had left she'd changed for the day into a pair of army green shorts, a black tank top and a Hawaiian button up shirt that hung open like a jacket.

The door opened and B.A. came into the room with a tray in one hand. "Hannibal sent your breakfast up, how're you today?"

"I'm alright," she told him, "I'd feel better if everybody didn't parade through here to make sure I'm not on my feet. I've gotten around on a bad ankle before, doesn't everybody?"

"We' just trying to make sure you recover as quickly as possible," B.A. told her, "No sense in making it worse than it already is."

"So noted," Jean said as she took the tray and looked over her food, "Did Murdock cook this?"

B.A. snorted and replied, "No way, you can't trust that crazy fool to get anything right, you especially can't trust him around food."

Jean smiled tiredly and commented, "I see you're still you're same old grumpy self…I'd think you'd be thrilled."

"About what?" B.A. asked.

"About Billy being gone," Jean told him, "Murdock told me about giving him to the people in Holland…I'd think you'd be ecstatic that Murdock got rid of him, no more Billy around here anymore, right?"

B.A. scoffed and replied, "You'd _think_ so, but no, if anything it's only worse since he did that."

"How is that possible?" Jean asked him.

"Because," B.A. answered, "Now all that crazy fool does is go on about that stupid invisible dog, talks about him all the time about how much he misses him, like he was _real_ or something."

Jean seldom wore her emotions on her arm but the look on her face became very somber as she told B.A., "I'll ask you to remember who you're speaking to…that dog Billy is as real as you or I am…well, as real as _you_ anyway, I'm not so sure about myself."

There was a moment of silence between them before B.A. said to her, "I just don't get it, I know Murdock's crazy and he' been crazy since he crashed his plane back in 'Nam, but _you_, I don't get how you can see that dog when he ain't there."

"B.A.," Jean calmly explained to him, "He _is_ there, when I met you guys I didn't know anything about Billy, I didn't know there _was_ a dog…so how could I possibly have seen him if I didn't know about him if he _wasn't_ there?"

B.A. had to admit he couldn't come up with an answer for that one, but he asked her, "If the dog _is_ real, why can't anybody else see him?"

"They can, Murdock says the kids in Holland could see Billy…maybe it's just a matter of Billy only likes revealing himself to open minded people," Jean suggested.

The look B.A. shot at her when she said that was nothing short of hilarious, but he said nothing and turned to leave when Jean called him back and said, "I'm not hungry, so why don't you take this back to the kitchen and ram it down the garbage disposal?"

"You sure you're feeling alright, mama?" he asked her.

Jean nodded and insisted she was fine, B.A. could tell she wouldn't budge on her answer but he got the feeling that something was up.

* * *

Later in the morning, Murdock came back upstairs to visit with Jean, he checked her ankle and saw the swelling was going down and made sure she had fresh ice put on it. He also showed Jean a tube of Deep Heat that he found in the medicine cabinet and suggested they use it on her bruises, which were taking their sweet time to change colors and heal.

"It seems to me that you've done this before," she said teasingly as he applied it to her left arm.

So he had, he remembered, only last time it was on her back after the MPs got done beating on her because they thought she was him. The army had never managed to prove that he was the fourth member of the A-Team, everybody still thought only Hannibal, B.A. and Face were the actual members, but still they always had their suspicions. And when they'd seen her in his jacket and cap, that had been confirmation enough for them, until Lynch actually had the brains to call it off when he saw it was a woman they were trying to kill.

"You know, Murdock," Jean told him when he finished, "You don't have to stay up here with me."

"That's alright, I like it up here," Murdock told her, "It's a nice change of pace from just having the other three to talk to all the time. They're a nice bunch of guys but I need a little variety from time to time."

Jean watched him as he went around the room still looking at everything she had laying around, and she asked him, "Murdock, how far is the V.A. hospital from here?"

"Oh I don't know," he said as he pulled part of some costume off the floor and held it up against himself and saw his reflection in the mirror, "About five or six miles I guess, why?"

"No reason," Jean said, "I was just thinking if you could ever find a way to bust out of there without Face's help, you could always hole up here, _nobody_ would ever think to look for you in this place."

Murdock hawed at that thought and told her, "Anybody could hide out in this place, Glenn Miller probably came here after his plane crashed," he turned away from the mirror and looked back to the bed and added, "Maybe he's hiding in the shower."

Jean tried to get through to Murdock and asked him, "It wouldn't be _worse_ staying here than at the hospital, would it?"

"Worse?" he repeated in disbelief, "Hell no, this place is _great_."

"I don't know how you do it, Murdock," Jean told him, "I don't know how you go back to that place…I'd kill myself if I had to go back to the hospital I was in and I was only there for three days."

"Well at the V.A. they have a few more things planned to keep the patients occupied than at a regular hospital," Murdock explained, "Especially in the crazy ward."

"I suppose that's true, but don't they stuff you full of a lot of pills and give you all kinds of shots and stuff like that?" Jean asked.

"Oh that just takes a little getting around," Murdock told her, "In the beginning yeah, but I've found a way to get around most of that over the years…they think I take my medication but I don't."

"Still, you can't be happy there," Jean said.

"Well, it certainly _does_ put a crimp in trying to find somebody to settle down with and start a family," Murdock agreed as he sat down at the foot of the bed and looked at her, "Most of the nurses there have some kind of qualm about getting involved with patients."

"Then what you need is a woman shrink, it's my understanding the head doctors have _no_ qualms about getting involved with their patients," Jean told him.

"Hmmm, I might have to try that," Murdock nodded, "I just have to find one…come to think of it, I think all the psychiatrists I've seen since I got there have been men…I wonder why?"

Jean reached forward and grabbed him by his hair to get his attention, and when she had it she told him, "Murdock, why don't you just take those tests the right way so the doctors will know you're not really insane and they'll let you go?" Before he could respond with his usual repertoire that he was crazy she reminded him, "You know they _don't_ let crazy people consent to marriage."

Murdock moped like a depressed dog and told her, "They don't let us vote, they don't let us get married, they don't let crazy people do _anything_, all the time they try harder and harder to make it impossible for a crazy person to have any fun, what's the point in _being_ crazy then?"

* * *

Around noon, Face came upstairs to see Jean and check on how she was doing, and her patience was about to run threadbare as he told him, "First B.A. comes up with my breakfast, then Murdock comes up to make sure I've got ice for my ankle, then Hannibal comes up to make sure I'm not taking any painkillers that are going to cause any problems for the blood in my bruises…and now here _you_ are…why? The four of you didn't hover me this much when you thought I was going to kill myself."

"Well of course not," Face replied cynically, "Back then we only had to worry about protecting you from yourself."

"That's _not_ the reason you're up here now," she replied, "So what is it?"

"Just seeing if you were ready for lunch," Face told her.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry," Jean said as she rolled on her side away from him.

"That's what you said at breakfast, are you sick?" he asked her.

"No I'm not sick," she said as she turned over to see him, "I'm just not in the mood for company, third degrees, or your colonel's God awful cooking, good day Face."

"But I…"

"I said _good day!_" Jean repeated as she turned away from him again.

Face remembered a few days ago when she was ready to start throwing things at him and he took the hint and left the room before something particularly heavy or sharp suddenly became airborne. He bumped into Murdock on the way out and warned him to keep his distance, "Right now I think it'd be safer to swim in a pool full of piranhas than to see her."

"I never tried swimming with piranhas, I'll take the chance," Murdock told him.

"Good luck," Face told him as he headed for the stairs, "You'll need it."

Murdock went into the bedroom and closed the door behind him and went over to the bed where Jean was turned away from him and had her head buried under a pillow. Murdock thought about announcing his presence but decided it would be better to try something that might lighten the mood some, and he got an idea. He went over to the bed, knelt down next to Jean and pressed his nose against her hand and whimpered like a dog. He sat up with his hands hanging down like paws and he panted and yipped a little, trying to get her to turn around, but that didn't work so he nudged her again with his nose and tried licking her hand.

Jean rolled over and removed the pillow to see him and he sat up and barked, then he threw his hands on her shoulders to paw her and licked her face as she squeezed her eyes closed and half turned her face to avoid the assault, but she couldn't fool him, he could see the smile starting to crack through. He stopped licking her face and started sniffing frantically like she was hiding a treat from him and he started to stick his head inside her outer shirt. Jean was laughing by this time and she reached behind her and grabbed the daily paper and rolled it up and told him, "Down boy!" and smacked him on the head with it.

He drew back from her and said, with a big grin of his own, "I thought that'd bring you around." He became a bit more serious and said to her, "Now come on, darling, what's the matter with you?"

"I'm just going stir crazy lying in bed all day, that's what's the matter," she told him, "Who do you think looked after me when I moved out here if something went wrong? Nobody, I've been taking care of myself, and I don't take anything lying down."

"I can understand that but there comes a time when you've got to let your body heal or else it's gonna rebel against you," Murdock told her.

"Yeah but come on Murdock," Jean held her foot up to show him, "It's about the right size again, surely I can get up and walk around my own house instead of just to the bathroom and back."

"I'm sure you can, sweetheart, but humor a crazy person will you? And just try and hold out until tomorrow and give it a little more time to heal up."

Jean bit the inside of her bottom lip and folded her arms and seemed to consider it and she finally told him though it was obvious she wasn't happy with this arrangement, "For you, Murdock, I'll try anything."

He grinned at her sheepishly and replied, "Aw that's a nice thing to say…now if I could only get one of the nurses at the V.A. to say the same thing."


	8. Chapter 8

"I've had Amy check out the newspaper records on the obituaries of the people buried at the Forever Peaceful Cemetery," Hannibal told B.A. and Face that afternoon, "One thing she found was that most of the people who came up missing had all used the same funeral home. That doesn't help us much but it does give us something to look into."

"How?" Face asked.

"Well of course you realize, Face, that if words gets out about this, it could be _very_ bad for the funeral home's business, especially if say…a reporter and his photographer went down there and started asking a bunch of questions."

"Think Amy will go for it?" Face asked.

"No not Amy," Hannibal answered, "She can't help us because she's being sent out to Jakarta for a story soon, but _you _have a camera, right, Face?"

Already Face knew he wasn't going to like this, "Oh come on, Hannibal, why me?"

"Because I think the people at the funeral home will buy you as a photographer," Hannibal answered simply.

That might be true but still Face couldn't resist complaining the whole time they got ready.

"B.A., can you keep an eye on things here while we're gone?" Hannibal asked.

"Sure thing, man, ain't _nothing_ gonna happen while I'm here," B.A. told him.

"Good," he turned back to the reluctant lieutenant and told him, "Come on, Face, we've got work to do."

Face grumbled and whined the whole way out the door. B.A. shut the door behind them and laughed to himself as he went up the stairs to check on Jean. He poked his head in the door and asked her, "Everything alright, mama?"

"Fine, B.A.," she answered from where she lay on the bed, "Just _fine_."

"Alright, Hannibal and Faceman went to check out the cemetery, so if you need anything just holler."

"I'll holler even if I _don't_ need anything," Jean replied with a knowing look.

B.A. smiled at her in return and left the room, a minute later Murdock stepped out of the closet in a metallic Arabian Night costume and did his imitation of a belly dance as he hummed a snake charmer tune. He went over to the bed and asked, "Incidentally Saint, what do you have all these costumes for?"

"I'm keeping them until further notice," she answered, "These are all outfits I wore in movies for stunts, we're waiting to hear if additional shots are going to be needed or redone."

"You do stunts in all of them?" he asked her.

"Pretty much, what do they call the actors that are basically extras but they have a few lines? A piece of furniture that talks…well I'm the piece of furniture that hits. That's all I do is beat up people and crash cars and stuff like that."

Murdock walked over to the trunk by Jean's bed and picked up one of the books she had laid out, it was open to a picture still of the infamous shower scene from 'Psycho'. "Somehow I get the idea you got bigger things in mind though than just being in crowd fights and burning wrecks."

Jean shrugged her shoulders, "The best actors weren't recognized right away either, and they had more to offer than I do. The first movie I got a job in, I was just an extra for a big crowd scene and a fight broke out, so _everybody's_ kicking and punching each other and throwing chairs…I got noticed because I climbed up to the balcony on the second floor, jumped off it, and landed on the film's villain, and a good thing I got noticed then because it's not something I'd care to do twice, and I'm sure he wouldn't either. We were both lucky nothing got broken but for different reasons, he landed on the floor and bruised his ribs, I got thrown off and hit a huge pane of real glass, not the baked sugar stuff, it cracked but I was able to get away without being cut into a million pieces by it. In my opinion, there's got to be an easier way to break into pictures, I just haven't found it yet."

"Oh yeah? You know Face and I are always talking about making movies," Murdock told her.

"I heard, like 'Boots and Bikinis'?" Jean asked.

"That's Face's idea, and only when he needs to scam something," Murdock said as he took the costume off piece by piece, "But I want to make an actual movie, and I've got a great idea for one."

"What's that?" Jean asked him.

"Well when you can get back on your feet, I'll show you, I've got it all planned out," Murdock told her, "And you're never going to guess where I've got the location set."

* * *

"Well that was a bust," Face said as he nearly dropped his camera on the floor of his 'Vette as he and Hannibal got in, "We didn't find out anything here."

"I don't know, Face," Hannibal told him, "I think we found out quite a bit."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Face asked, "They threatened to call the cops on us if we didn't get out of there."

"That's because they don't want anybody calling the cops on _them_," Hannibal explained, "They're scared because they know the blood's in the water and there's a shark nearby."

Face turned and looked at him, "You think that _they_…"

"No," Hannibal shook his head, "But I know what they're thinking, since their business is the only known common factor right now, they're worried that they may be held liable for what's happened, or at the very least, connected to it in some way. One thing I _did_ find out, all the people who have come up missing, were buried with something of great value placed in the coffin with them."

"It's ancient Egypt all over again," Face commented as they drove back to where they stashed the van.

"Apparently some of the 'customers' had been buried with their best jewelry on," Hannibal said, "The services were closed casket but the family members were allowed a private viewing to lift the lid and say goodbye."

"Yeah but what does that prove?" Face asked, "They couldn't rob the corpses before the burial so maybe they waited until _after_ the burials and _then_ made their move. Who's going to be the less likely suspect for a grave robbing than the morticians?"

Hannibal shook his head again, "I just don't buy that, Face. I think if it was one of the employees that they would steal the jewelry before the funeral and simply convince the family that a private viewing wouldn't be in their best interest. However, I think that the people responsible _know_ when somebody's being buried and taking their fortune with them."

"Well for that to be the case, they'd have to be relatives of the deceased, wouldn't they?" Face asked him.

"Or somebody _pretending_ to be," Hannibal said, "And I think I can prove it."

"How?" Face asked.

"We'll watch the newspapers for another death and if it's somebody getting serviced by the funeral home, I'll come in and pass myself off as one of the family members and see if I can get in on a private viewing. If I can, then my suspicions are correct."

"And if you can't?" Face asked him.

"Then I'm wrong," Hannibal told him, but they both knew what the odds were of that happening.

* * *

While Hannibal and Face were gone and B.A. was keeping an eye on the downstairs, Jean had gotten out of bed and was giving Murdock a tour from the upstairs. They went from window to window and room to room as she showed him the grounds from a bird's eye view and explained where everything was and what was going to be done next.

"This window overlooks the side yard, I'm going to have a swimming pool put up down there," she told him.

"Up?" Murdock repeated.

"Yes, one of those above the ground kinds so that you can take it down in…" she smacked herself in the forehead, "That's right, I forgot, in California there is no winter, not like New York anyway, so the pool could probably stay up all year."

"I think you ought to get one of the big in the ground types like the public pool," Murdock told her, "Because then you can have a high diving board and a waterslide…"

"And a pet shark?" Jean added.

"You have to admit it would be fun," he told her with his trademark grin, "By the way, I noticed that one of the rooms on the other side has a stairway leading out from the window and down to the ground."

"That's right," Jean told him, "That's a storage room."

"Well if you've got your own stairway leading outside, why wouldn't you make _that_ one your bedroom?" he asked.

"Too obvious," Jean answered, "If somebody were planning to break into this house and murder me in my sleep, that'd probably be the first room they tried, the one with their own entrance way."

"Ahhh," Murdock nodded, "I hadn't thought of that, that's a good point."

They left that room and headed to one where the window faced the front of the house and they looked out at the large front yard complete with a lawn swing and a few large trees down below.

"It's a nice place to live," Jean told Murdock, "But it can get lonely, like I said there are hardly any neighbors and nobody's ever really home either."

"Well you were right about one thing," Murdock told her, "With that in mind this _is_ an ideal place for us to come and hide out when the situation comes up."

There was a pause between them for a moment and it was only interrupted when they heard a car coming up the road. They looked out the window and saw the van and the corvette coming their way.

"Oh great, here comes Hannibal in the van and Joy Boy in the 'Vette," Jean noted, "I wonder what they found out."

"I'll go see," Murdock said, but he didn't turn away from the window; instead he opened it up more until he could practically slip right out of it. He looked out and saw Hannibal and Face coming up the sidewalk and he stood on the windowsill and waited until they were closer to the house, then he called down, "Hey Faceman, catch me!" and jumped out the window.

Face had time to look up but barely any to react before the full weight of Murdock falling landed on him and they both hit the grass below.

"That was great, Facey," Murdock told him as he got up, "But next time I'd like to see you do that with a little more emotion."

"Murdock, what do you _think_ you're doing?" Face wanted to know as he got up.

"Oh," Murdock pointed back to the house and told him, "The elevator was out of order so I took the second best express way down."

"That'll do it alright," Hannibal noted.

"Did you find anything out, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"I might've," was his answer.

"That means he did," Murdock told Face, then looking to Hannibal he asked him, "What'd you find out, Colonel?"

"You'll see, Murdock, right now it's just a matter of waiting," he explained.

* * *

Murdock had been outnumbered on the suggestion that he cook dinner that night, but Hannibal's plans for the meal didn't turn out much better and it was about nine before anybody got to eat. Once again, Murdock took his meal up with Jean's and kept her company while she ate; all through the meal he tried not to let on that anything was up but he felt like he was grinning from ear to ear, he had a great idea and couldn't wait to tell her about it. After dinner he collected their plates to take them downstairs but Jean got out of bed and hobbled behind him down the hall and down the back stairs leading to the kitchen.

"I suppose dinner was alright but I'm also guessing there's a reason why Hannibal makes his living as an actor and _not_ as a cook," Jean told him on the way down, "Though I don't think I've ever tried any of _your_ cooking, Murdock, it would probably be an improvement, but this wasn't too bad either."

"How about some applause for the guy getting dishpan hands down here?" they heard Face whine as they came closer to the foot of the stairs.

Murdock laughed, "Faceman, is that you?"

"Well who else would it be, Murdock?"

They reached the kitchen and saw a hilarious sight that was worth marking the date for; Face stood at the sink with his jacket off, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his hands submerged in a sink full of soapy water and dirty dishes.

"And me without my camera," Murdock commented.

"Well _somebody_ had to do it," Face said bitterly.

"And you got the short straw, eh?" Jean asked.

Face craned his neck further around so he could see her standing behind Murdock, "How're you feeling, Jean?"

"I'm alright," she said, "Though if I'd known you were the new maid I could've faked it for another week."

Face laughed sarcastically and glared at Murdock before returning to the dishes.

"So where're Hannibal and the big angry mudsucker?" Jean asked.

"In the living room," Face answered.

"Hmm, so I guess I better get back upstairs before they see me and Hannibal reads me the riot act," Jean said, and started tiptoeing back up the kitchen stairs.

"I'll be up in a little bit, Saint," Murdock told her.

"Okay."

Face looked at Murdock and asked him, "What's that about?"

"Oh nothing, Facey, she's just wanting some company," he answered.

"Yeah, but she doesn't want ours," Face reminded him, "If we try going up there she's likely to throw something at us."

"Well maybe you're just not talking to her right," Murdock told him.

Face rolled his eyes as he pulled the drain plug out of the sink and asked Murdock, "And how is that?"

"Well you know, Face, she's not crazy like I am, but all the same you have to know how to _talk_ crazy in order to get along with her," Murdock explained.

Both men about jumped at the noise of the kitchen door swinging open and Hannibal came in and told them, "Face, Murdock, we're moving out, let's roll."

"What's going on, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"There was a breaking story on the news, Bullen and his men managed to break out of jail, and I've got an idea where's he's going."

"The Murtaugh family?" Face asked.

"Right," Hannibal said, "He didn't get the money but I have a feeling he's going back for revenge." He took a phone number out of his pocket and picked up the phone and dialed it, and waited for the other end to pick up, but he hung up the phone after a minute and said, "Nobody's answering the phone, I can only hope we're not too late."

"Hannibal?" they heard Jean's voice and saw her coming down the stairs.

"Jean, we've got to get back to Fort Gulch, are you going to be okay here by yourself?" Hannibal asked her.

"I've managed for three months without anybody here, I think I can manage one night," she told him.

"Alright," he said and nodded his head to the door, "Let's go."

* * *

They hadn't been able to get to the Murtaugh home before Bullen's gang did; they pulled up in the van just in time to see the fire pouring through the first floor windows. There were a couple of fire extinguishers in the back of the van so they got them out and B.A. and Murdock used them while Hannibal found John and Janis by the door and found out somebody had thrown a firebomb into the living room; the kids were still inside but John had gotten Janis out first so he didn't have to worry about her too and was going back in to get Alexis and Jamie. No sooner had John finished telling Hannibal this, somebody opened fire on them from somewhere in the shadows; Face came in and returned fire, buying the others the time they needed, Hannibal got Murtaugh and his wife over by the van, out of sight _and_ the line of fire, and he ran into the house.

"Jamie!" he called out, trying not to take in the smoke, "Alexis!"

There wasn't any answer and the fire offered more than enough light to see that they weren't anywhere to be found on the first floor so they had to be upstairs. The stairway in the hall hadn't been hit by the flames yet so Hannibal charged up the stairs, calling to the kids and praying he found them before anything happened to them. He did find them, both hiding in Jamie's bedroom, their fear had driven them into a paralysis of sorts and they were too scared to move, they clung to each other in a death grip.

"It's alright," Hannibal told them as he put his arms around them and helped them up, "It's alright kids, I'm going to get you out of here, just stick close to me."

This was _not_ Hannibal's area of expertise, usually B.A. was the one who dealt with the kids, but right now B.A. was down on the ground with his own hands full, so now Hannibal had to be the one that got them out of here and to safety. He had one arm around each kid and calmly walked them to the stairs and amidst the destruction going on around them, he managed to keep them from panicking as they cautiously made their way downstairs and headed for the door. Both children clung to him as they stayed clear of the fire and crossed the threshold and escaped the smoke and disappeared into the cool night air. By now Murdock and B.A. had the worst of the fire out but the smoke would linger for days. Meanwhile Face had managed to draw out the trigger happy gunman who had been shooting at them, but he hadn't been able to find the rest of the Bullen gang.

Hannibal saw a blinding flash of white light behind his closed eyelids, it was the only clue he had to take that he had been struck in the back of the head because the pain hadn't registered with him yet. He felt his body drop to the ground and his eyes opened and he saw a man standing above him. But that man also fell to the ground and Hannibal saw it was because Alexis had come up behind the man and hit _him_ in the head with her skateboard, consequently breaking it.

"Thanks, kid," Hannibal groaned as he slowly got back up, "Are you okay?"

She seemed to be but they had other problems just starting. Jamie had spotted another man hiding in the shadows and jumped on him; the two wrestled around and in the process it was revealed it was Bullen himself that the boy was fighting with. Bullen's handgun was knocked to the ground during the struggle, Jamie let go of him and instead grabbed the gun and had it pointed at Bullen, and was about to pull the trigger.

"Jamie, don't do it!" Hannibal told him as he inched over towards the boy, "Put the gun down, son."

"No," the boy shook his head and Hannibal could see the tears welling up in his eyes. It was obvious that he didn't _want_ to shoot anybody, he didn't _want_ to hurt anybody, but it was also obvious he didn't see it as he had a choice, Bullen had to be stopped and this was the only way he knew how to do it.

"He got out once, he'll do it again," Jamie told Hannibal.

"Not this time, Jamie," Hannibal locked one arm around the boy's waist and grabbed the gun from his hand with the other, and he himself held it on Bullen, "I don't know _how_ you managed that jailbreak but I'll guarantee you won't do it again. With this fine stunt you'll be going away for the rest of your days, and if you don't, if _anything_ happens to this family, Bullen, if they get one crank call, if one stranger comes up to their kids in the schoolyard, if they get a cold, we're going to hunt you down and hold you responsible, and you will regret the day you were ever born. I can promise you that."

Bullen had his hands high in the air and a neutral look on his face, but it was clear he knew he wasn't getting away from this one. Face came up to him and rifled his hands through the man's coat pockets and pulled out a wallet, "You know Hannibal, it's always been to my knowledge that guys like this never travel without some mad money…and look at this," he pulled out several large bills, "I think this should be just about enough to put the Murtaughs up in a hotel until the damage to their home from the fire is repaired."

"I told you that we would collect from you," Hannibal told Bullen, "One way or another. And if their insurance doesn't pay for this, we'll come with the bill for that too. I know about men like you, Bullen, in prison or out, you always have money at your fingertips, and if you try anything else I'm going to give you a manicure that sands you down to the knuckles."

* * *

"Hannibal, are you sure you don't need a doctor?" Murdock asked during the ride back.

Hannibal ignored how things blurred together when he opened his eyes and assured the rest of the team that he was fine. He was sure he had a minor concussion but he didn't think it was anything worth bothering with, especially not to stop at a hospital and risk someone spotting them and calling in Decker.

"I don't know, Colonel, you took a pretty hard blow to the head," Murdock reminded him.

"Not as much as Bullen's man did when that skateboard broke over his head," Face added, "I thought they made them stronger than that."

"I'll be fine," Hannibal insisted, "I just hope that now that Bullen's gang is being relocated to maximum security lockup for holding until the trial, that Murtaugh's kids will be alright."

"I think they will, Colonel," Murdock told him, "Kids are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for."

"Some are, anyway," Face added.

Hannibal looked at his wristwatch and saw that it was going on 3 o' clock in the morning, "At least when we get back to the house we can go to bed for a few hours and get some rest."

"I just don't get it, Colonel," Murdock said, "Why would Bullen come back for the family? He had to know they didn't have his money."

"That's right, he did, but he also knew if they _had_ gotten out when he told them to, he wouldn't have lost it and gone to jail," Hannibal explained.

"Well then how come he didn't just get it out of the house before they moved in?" Face asked.

"That's a good question, Face, maybe someday we'll have an answer for it," Hannibal said.

After a while they returned to Jean's place, B.A. parked the van up by the garage and the four men tiredly walked up to the house and went in through the back door.

"I hope Jean's asleep," Face grumbled half to himself, "I'm in no mood for recapping what went on tonight."

Hannibal was ahead of Face and he stopped suddenly and Face walked into his back, and he heard Hannibal say, "I don't think you have to worry about that."

They were at the threshold leading into the living room and Face moved to the side and saw Jean was lying on the couch asleep, the TV was on but had long since gone to snow and static for the night. Stepping lightly, Hannibal went over to the couch and quickly looked her over to make sure nothing had happened while they were gone. Everything looked the same, right down to the bruise running the course of her arm. Hannibal grabbed the sheet that was draped over the back of the couch and instead draped it over Jean to cover her up for the night. Face turned off the television and quietly the men agreed to leave her here and just go to bed. One by one they walked out of the room and headed for their own beds, Murdock was the last one remaining in the living room with Jean. He also went over to the couch to see her, and he kissed her lightly on the top of her head and also headed upstairs for the night.

* * *

Face didn't remember falling asleep but the next thing he knew, it was morning and he and Murdock were both on the floor with the bedspread and top sheet tangled around them and the pillows on the floor with them. He also realized he didn't remember ever falling out of bed in the night so he must've slept harder than usual.

"What a night," he grumbled as he shook his head to clear his mind.

"Rough time, Faceman?" Murdock asked, who was as usual, too wide awake for this early in the day.

"I had a bunch of weird dreams," Face said as he rubbed one eye, "But I don't even remember what they were."

They got up and got the bed remade and then headed into the bathroom to freshen up for the day. Face splashed cold water on his face and rubbed the crust out of the corners of his eyes while Murdock combed his hair down and then picked up Face's bottle of cologne and sprayed it under his arms like deodorant.

"Murdock, why do you do that?" Face asked as he watched Murdock's reflection in the mirror over the sink.

"Well come on, Faceman, the idea of cologne is to smell better, right?" Murdock asked, "So why not apply it where it'll do the most good? Besides, this stuff you use is a lot stronger than the Old Spice."

Face rolled his eyes and lightly shook his head as he wetted down his comb under the faucet and used it to smooth his hair back. There was a knock at the door and they heard Jean ask, "Can I come in?"

"Sure, we're decent," Face answered.

"That's not what I was worried about," Jean said as she came into the room, dressed for the day in a tank top and a pair of jean shorts, "Sorry to barge in on you guys but B.A.'s in the shower downstairs and I didn't want to walk in on him. So how did it go last night?"

Face stepped to the side so the three of them could fit at the sink counter, "I'd say status quo. Bullen and his friends went back to jail and the Murtaugh family is staying at a hotel while they wait for their home to be repaired from the damage the fire caused."

"What makes you think Bullen won't get out again?" Jean asked as she ran her hands under the faucet and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Because right before we dropped them off for the police to recollect, we had B.A. spend a few minutes with them making sure they don't get too anxious to get out of prison."

"I never took B.A. for the kind of guy that uses people like punching bags," Jean told him, "I thought he just tossed them through a window, knocked them out and that was that."

"Well we wanted to make sure there wasn't any misunderstanding," Face explained, "And how about you? What did you do all night while we were gone?"

"Nothing much," she answered as she opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of perfume, "Just sat on the couch and watched a murder mystery movie marathon until I finally conked out. What time did you guys get back?"

Face opened his mouth to answer but paused when he saw Jean spray the bottle of perfume under her arms and he caught the look Murdock was giving him, "Uh…about 3 o' clock."

"Hey Facey," Murdock said, "Have I told you about my new idea for a movie?"

"What movie?" Face asked.

Jean turned to him and said, "Murdock's going to make a movie."

"Oh yeah?" Face tried to keep a straight face and play along, "What kind is it, Murdock?"

"A horror movie, you're gonna love it, Face, I've got it all planned out, I want you both to star in it, and I want us to start rehearsing tonight when the lighting's right."

Face looked at Jean through the corner of his eye and without a word, inquired if she had any idea about this, and she responded with a slight shake of the head and a small smirk.

"Alright, Murdock, what did you have in mind?" Face asked.

* * *

"Murdock, I think this is the craziest idea you've had yet," Face said as they went in the front gate to the cemetery.

"Oh come on, Face, this is the perfect setting," Murdock said as he looked around at the tombstones, "You can't get anymore realistic than this."

"That might be but don't you think it's in poor taste?" Face asked.

"Oh I don't think the people here will mind," Murdock answered, "Just watch where you step and we shouldn't have any problems."

"Now explain to me again what's in here," Jean said as she held up the large travel bag Murdock had insisted they bring with them when they sneaked out of the house tonight. It was well after midnight and they had made sure Hannibal and B.A. were both asleep before they climbed down the outside stairs and got Jean's car out of the garage to see what Murdock's great plan was.

"Those are the costumes for the wardrobe section," Murdock said as they walked along the main road in the cemetery.

"Some costumes," Face replied, "Just a bunch of our spare clothes, and most of them are B.A.'s, we can't use them anyway."

"If he got them recently we could use them as a tent," Jean commented.

Murdock laughed and turned to Face and told him, "You see? I told you he was getting fat."

"Alright Murdock, so what's this idea you have?" Face wanted to know.

"Well first I need to find just the _right_ spot to start shooting," Murdock looked around and said, "I want to start this around one of those large mausoleums, Jean you know this place better than we do, are there a lot of those around here?"

"Well it's hard to tell in the dark like this, but I think there's one over there," Jean pointed, "If the moon was out we'd know."

"Face, you got your flashlight?" Murdock asked.

"Yeah," Face took it out of his pocket and turned it on, "Let's go."

They were halfway in the cemetery before they saw the mausoleum, and Murdock told Face to shut off the flashlight so he could see it as it was up close and in the dark.

"Ah, this is perfect," he said with a slight German accent, "This is _just_ what I was looking for, it is excellent."

"So what do we do?" Jean asked.

"Right," Murdock switched back to his normal voice and told Face, "You go around onto the other side and wait there for my signal…and you," he pointed to Jean, "You stay here on this side, and I'm going to get back and see how it looks."

He took six large steps back and held his hands to frame the view, and he called for Face to come around to the front, but the only response he was met with was a groan and he heard something hit the ground. Before he had time to find out what had happened, he quickly got his answer when he heard a loud crack and realized he'd been hit in the back of the head, and that was the last thought he had before he succumbed to unconsciousness.

* * *

Face woke up with a throbbing headache and his face shoved into the ground and a distinctive taste of dirt in his mouth and blood at the back of his throat. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the cemetery, and at first he couldn't remember what he was doing here or how he had gotten there, and then it all came back to him. He sat up and saw that the front of his clothes were covered in dirt, he ran his hand along his face and didn't feel any cuts or bruises so considered himself lucky there. Just a blot of dried blood stuck against his lips from where one had been split open when he hit the hard ground.

"Murdock?" it occurred to him that if he'd been knocked out here all night, then Murdock had to be close by as well, "Murdock?"

"Over here, Face," he heard Murdock groaning.

Face got up and looked and saw Murdock trying to sit up a few feet away from him. "Murdock, are you okay?"

"I think so, Face, but man I got one wowzer of a headache," Murdock answered, "What happened?"

"Somebody jumped us last night, that's what happened," Face told him as he went over to the pilot.

Murdock looked up at him and asked, "What about the Saint? Where's she?"

Face looked around the cemetery and saw only green grass and white stones, he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "Jean! Jean, are you okay?"

They heard a low moaning coming from nearby. Murdock jumped to his feet and the two followed the sound of the noise to a few rows down and they were both horrified at what they saw. Jean also lay facedown on the ground, her shirt torn off her body and ripped to shreds a few feet away from her. Her slow movements in an attempt to get up said that she must still be in a daze from her own attack, and it seemed more than likely she would pass out again before she could get to her feet.

"Saint!" Murdock dropped down at her side and carefully put his arm around her to turn her over and access the damage. "Saint, can you hear me?"

Her eyes were almost closed and she couldn't work her mouth open but Murdock could hear a low 'M-m-m-m' sound emanating from her throat. Face looked and spotted the bag with their extra clothes in it and he ran and got it so they had something to cover her with.

"That's right, darling, it's me, your old buddy Murdock," he said to her as he tried to get her to look at him. He couldn't get her to focus her eyes directly, and he didn't know if she was aware of what was going on, but after a quick glance that said there wasn't any immediately visible damage, he held her close to him with her neck in the crook of his arm and he spoke gently to her, a lot of jabber about they were there and she would be alright, but he felt like if he stopped talking, something worse would happen.

Face came back with the bag and Murdock reached into it and pulled out the first thing he grabbed, which was one of B.A.'s shirts, and he tried to cover Jean with it, but it was so big that he could wrap it around her twice, which he did, as he continued talking to her, "I'm here, Face is here, we're both here, Saint, and you're going to be alright so just take it easy, everything's going to be alright."

Jean forced a few more 'M' sounds past her closed lips and with one hand she reached up and grabbed Murdock by the collar of his jacket, and then lost her grip as her upper body fell against the ground and she passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

When Hannibal and B.A. woke up that morning, one thing they quickly realized was that they were missing three people from the house, and Jean's car was missing from the driveway as well. Hannibal consulted his watch and tapped the glass screen just to make sure it was running right, "It's not even 7 in the morning yet."

"Where do you think they'd go this early, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.

"We didn't hear them leave, so I'm guessing they might've left sometime in the night," Hannibal told him, "And there's only one place I can think of that they might go."

B.A. did a double take, "Back to the cemetery?"

"Where else?" Hannibal asked, "They didn't take the van, let's go out and check."

They did, and upon reaching the entrance gates they saw Jean's car, and saw Face standing by it, and he didn't look thrilled to see Hannibal and B.A.

"Well, Lieutenant?" Hannibal asked him, "Would you care to explain this one?"

"We have _not_ had a good night, Hannibal," Face shook his head, "Whoever attacked Jean before got all of us last night, knocked us out."

"Are you alright?" Hannibal asked, noticing now the dirt on Face's clothes and his split lip.

"Murdock and I are alright, but Jean got it the worst," Face answered.

"What happened?"

Before Face could answer, Murdock and Jean came out the gateway behind him, and they saw Jean was wearing a large camouflage shirt with no sleeves, and the bottom half had been converted into a tie-shirt so the whole thing didn't come clear down to her knees.

"Sorry, B.A.," she said, "But apparently somebody around here is intent on seeing me play Lady Godiva, or Gypsy Rose Lee, or one of those."

"Are you okay, kid?" Hannibal asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," she said.

"Was it the same people as the ones that ambushed you last time?" he asked her.

"I didn't see their faces, but I think so, there were three of them again, one got Face, one got Murdock, and one got me…then two of them were grabbing me."

"What about the third fool?" B.A. asked.

"He took off somewhere else…you can see they didn't get as far with me as they did last time," she fidgeted as she tugged on B.A.'s shirt she wore, "Something interrupted them."

"But what?" Hannibal wanted to know.

"They knocked us out because we were here, obviously our presence interrupted them first, and if they were stealing another body they had to finish with that and get out before anybody could see them, so that didn't leave them much time to deal with us," Jean explained.

"They only knocked us out, Hannibal," Face told him, "I guess she was the only one they really wanted."

"Whoever it is obviously thinks they can intimidate you into stopping your nightly patrols," Hannibal said to Jean.

"Well they don't know me very well, do they?" she asked, "And what about you, Hannibal? You're the man with a plan, you got any ideas?"

Hannibal flashed his trademark smirk at her and replied, "Don't I always? Now, Face, you and Murdock were both knocked out, hit in the back of the head I suppose?" Face nodded, "One move and you went down?" He nodded again. "So it's a safe bet they didn't see your faces, so they probably wouldn't recognize you if they saw you again."

"Unless whoever it is is watching us right now," Face reminded him.

"I don't think so," Hannibal shook his head, "These are grave robbers we're talking about, and we can guess that they usually don't start work before midnight since the later in the night they start, the less likely they are to be found out by anybody who just happens to be passing by. Whoever they are, they have to sleep sometime, so they're probably either in bed now, or nearly there. So I think we're safe right now."

"Yeah, but what's the plan, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"I'm getting to that…" Hannibal turned to the lieutenant and told him, "Face, for this plan I'm going to need you to get us an oxygen tank with a hose and mask, and a coffin."

"A coffin?" Face repeated, "Why a coffin?"

"I'll explain on the way back, let's go," Hannibal said.

Jean headed over to her own car but B.A. was in the way and she couldn't get past him. She didn't say anything and neither did he, he looked down at her for a minute before reaching out with both hands and he redid the top two buttons on her shirt and straightened the collar out.

"There," he said, "That's better."

"As better as it can be considering it's three sizes too large for me," Jean told him as she pulled the seams of the shirt as far out as the material would allow and showed just how much it tented her, "But it'll do until I can get home and change. Thanks, B.A."

* * *

"I _know_ you have a plane to catch in the morning, Amy, but we really need this favor before you leave," Face said that afternoon on the phone. He carried the phone in one hand and paced around the dining room and the living room while Murdock and Jean sat on the couch and watched him go back and forth like it was a one person tennis match. "We just need the obituary and the photograph dropped off and ready to go out in tomorrow's newspaper, now do you have down everything I told you? Alright…" he flashed his own trademark smile in spite of the fact that she couldn't see it, "You're a lifesaver, Amy…okay, have a nice trip, bye-bye."

"Why don't you just marry the broad and get it over with?" Jean asked after he hung up.

"I've already explained to Murdock that Amy is not my type," Face explained as he put the phone up.

"Why not? She's a woman isn't she?" Jean asked.

Murdock laughed and said, "That's what I said, you see Face? You're just getting _too_ predictable." Then something occurred to him and he pointed at Jean and added, "And she's never even _met_ Amy and she can tell."

Their discussion was cut off as Hannibal and B.A. came into the living room, and they were in the middle of their own discussion.

"Hey Hannibal," B.A. said as they came into the room, "I still don't get why I gotta be the one to do this, why can't Faceman do it, or the crazy fool?" His eyes moved and focused on Murdock as he explained, "_He'd_ be fine put away in the coffin for a few hours, finally shut him up for a while."

"B.A., I've already explained why we need you to do this, you're the only one that can do it," Hannibal told him, "You should consider it an honor."

B.A. snorted and replied, "Some honor."

"Of course," Hannibal addressed the other three people in the room, "We have a new problem…in order to make this look real we're going to have to have a full sham funeral, and we only have three possible pallbearers here."

"Four," Jean said, and when she saw all eyes were on her she added, "I can help carry the coffin."

"We still need two more people," Hannibal said, "And unfortunately I can't think of anyone right offhand that we can bring in to help."

"Uh…" Jean raised her hand slowly, "I might know a couple of people, Hannibal."

"Who?"

"Jason Crowley and Peter Kellerman, a couple of stuntmen from the Kamikaze movie," she answered, "I know them pretty well, I think they'd help us. Half of Jason's family is buried at Forever Peaceful, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help us catch these jerks."

"Think we can trust them?" Face asked her.

"Well I do," she said, "It's your business if you want their help or not, but they're strong and they can help carry the coffin."

"And let's face it," Face told Hannibal and gestured towards B.A., "Considering who we're going to be carrying, we need all the help we can get."

B.A. just scowled at Face through the corner of his eye and growled lowly at him.

"Hannibal, there are other things to consider if this plan is _ever_ going to work," Face reminded him.

"I know, I'm working on that," Hannibal assured him, "I'm going back to the funeral home and telling the people working there that they are going to help us catch the grave robbers, and they're going to do it on _our_ conditions and they're going to do _exactly_ what we say."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Jean asked him.

Hannibal waved to B.A. and said, "I'm going to introduce them to the corpse."

"Aw man," B.A. shook his head, "I still say I ought to switch with Murdock on this one."

"What's the matter, ya big mudsucker?" Murdock asked sympathetically, "You claustrophobic?"

B.A. resisted the temptation to break Murdock's arm off and beat him over the head with it, instead he just shoved the pilot's hand away and told him bluntly, "No, fool."

"And what, just the six of us at the funeral?" Jean asked Hannibal.

"I'm sure that we can get the people at the funeral home to come up with a few shills," Hannibal told her, "Nobody said it had to be a _big_ turnout."

"Yeah but Hannibal," Face asked him, "How're you going to keep anybody from looking _in_ the coffin? I mean for most people, a simple 'it's too gruesome' might do, but anybody looking the insides over to see what's worth heisting isn't going to be too particular to that, is he?"

"Don't worry, Face, I've got a plan worked out for that too," Hannibal told him.

"There's a problem with that, Hannibal," Face reminded him, "Your plans _never_ work like they're supposed to."

"Maybe not," Hannibal shrugged innocently, "But they always _work_, and that's the important thing."

B.A. felt somebody poking him in the shoulder and he turned around and saw it was Jean, who asked him, "_Who's_ the crazy one around here?"

"Hannibal's not crazy, he's just on the jazz, there's a difference," B.A. told her, and added, "But not much."

* * *

Since Face anticipated little rest for the next couple of days what with Hannibal's new plan, he took advantage of the opportunity later that day to get a shower and shave, since he had an idea it would be a while before he had this chance again. He had just finished shaving when the bathroom door burst open and Jean told him, "Face, you've got to see this."

"Nice timing," Face told her, "If you'd been a minute sooner I might've cut my head off."

"Well next time I'll hide the mirror," she grabbed him by the shoulder of his jacket and jerked him, "Come on."

"I'm coming, what is it?" he wanted to know.

He followed Jean into her bedroom and came face to face with the lens of a very expensive movie camera.

"Smile, Facey," Murdock told him, "You're on Murdock Camera."

Face turned to Jean and asked her, "What is this?"

"He's the thief, Face," Jean said, "Murdock's the one that stole the camera from the movie set. _This_ is the C camera for the Kamikaze Racer."

"The _what_?" Face asked.

"They have three cameras rolling during filming, A, B, and C, this is the third camera and it's the one that came up missing the day you guys came to see me at the hospital," Jean explained, "Murdock stole it from the set."

Face couldn't even figure out where he was supposed to begin with this one, all he could think of was turning to Murdock and asking him, "Murdock, whatever possessed you to do that?"

"I had to, Face," Murdock answered as he lowered the camera, "When we went there to ask about the Saint, I saw it was rolling and that somebody had just left it on and it got you on tape, so I had to get rid of the film but it was easier at the time just to walk off with the whole camera."

"So did you remove it?" Face asked.

"Well yeah…I mean I started to, but then I got an idea," he said.

Face looked at Jean who only returned his clueless expression and told him, "_This_ is why he's been going on about making a movie, because he's actually got the camera and film for it."

"Face, I've got a great idea," Murdock tried to get through to him, "I've figured out what the next brilliant step in cinematography is."

"Alright Murdock, I'll bite, what is it?" Face asked.

"We take a step backwards," Murdock emphasized this by doing just that, "Back, back, back through the land of movie time and to the dawn of the age when film was a new concept and people slipped nickels into little crank projectors to see 20 seconds of cats boxing and people playing the violin."

Face shook his head at Jean and raised his finger to his temple and spun it to make it clear he was worried Murdock had really lost it this time, he was making even less sense than usual.

"You see, Face, I started thinking about this when the Saint told us about what they were doing with this Kamikaze movie, they have a movie and a main character without having a star, well why not do a movie without a main character at all? We just take the camera and get a bunch of footage, and we never focus on anybody's face, only the action, you have an action movie without knowing who anybody is, and if it's done right you won't even care."

Now it was Jean's turn to shake her head at Face and she said, "I don't really get it either, but he seems pretty definite about it."

"Aw come on, Face, at the very least it'll be fun," Murdock told him, "Also at the very least, either we can keep the footage and call it our home movies…or we can have it released after we die, what do you say?"

Face tried to keep a straight expression but one slight move made him break out in a grin and a chuckle as he said, "Well why not? What's the worst that can happen? Maybe we'll get lucky and nobody will even see it. When exactly do you plan to start filming?"

"When we go back to the cemetery, of course," Murdock answered.

"Of course," Face replied as if it was the most basic idea in the world.

"How're you going to do that during the funeral?" Jean asked.

"Not _during_ the funeral, after it," Murdock explained, "When things really get exciting."

"So when do we meet these friends of yours?" Face asked Jean.

"I don't want to bring them to the house so we'll have to talk to them down at the set," she explained, "But I'm sure they'll help us out."

"Well that's good," Murdock said as he put the camera down, "Because we're going to need it to carry that heavy mudsucker _and_ the coffin."

* * *

Jean went to Hannibal's room and knocked on his door, she heard him call out, "Come in," and she did. Upon entering the room she saw him standing in front of his mirror, applying a curly gray wig over his own short gray hair.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

"Face and I are going to the cemetery later to dig the grave ourselves, I want to make sure it's done right, now how would it look if the same people dig the grave who carry the coffin during the funeral?" he explained as he applied a thin layer of latex and makeup to give himself fat puffy cheeks to accentuate the large nose he was now wearing.

It took Jean a minute to remember what it was she had come into the room for, and she told Hannibal, "I have a question…it occurred to me a while ago that with Decker and the whole army hunting after you guys all the time…well, why don't you fake your deaths and then he'd give up looking? Wouldn't you be safe then?"

Hannibal ran a comb through the ratty hair on his head and he looked at Jean's reflection in the mirror and explained to her, "We couldn't do that, Decker needs us alive."

"Yeah, to put you in prison," Jean said.

Hannibal shook his head slightly, "No, what you don't understand about a man like Decker is that his life is driven by a single purpose, he needs some goal to strive for in order to give his own life any meaning. He thinks that purpose is to catch us, but it isn't, his true purpose in life is to just keep chasing us, I think deep down he realizes that we're always going to get away, but he still pursues us. If we should suddenly come up dead, his life loses its meaning…you can think of it if you want as being like those Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons, that's pretty much what it is too. I don't agree at all with the things Decker has done or that he's still doing, but I wouldn't be so heartless as to deprive the poor man of the only pleasure in his life, he lives for the hunt, so we'll give it to him."

Jean was starting to catch on to what he was saying and she added her own conclusion of, "And you like the chase."

Hannibal smirked at her reflection and admitted, "Decker's not the only man who gets any satisfaction from the hunt."

* * *

Although Face had insisted he could do his own makeup just fine, Hannibal had come in after the fact and redid it himself, so that Face's gravedigger was more of a goofy looking character. Murdock had seen the final result and told Face he looked perfect, "After all, whoever heard of a good looking gravedigger?"

They piled into the van and drove back to the movie studio and Jean tracked down the two stuntmen and brought them out to meet with the team. Hannibal gave them a brief explanation of who they were and what they were doing and that they needed help, and specified just what they needed. The two young men agreed to pose as pallbearers for the funeral and one of them said to make it look more convincing he could call in a few extras from the film to pose as friends at the service.

"That would be great," Hannibal told them, "We need this to look like a normal, everyday funeral that nobody will think twice about."

After the meeting with the stuntmen, Hannibal and Face dropped the others back at the house and went to the cemetery to dig the grave. By the time they got it deep and wide enough, Face was so exhausted he was ready to crawl in and use it himself. He told Hannibal that after everything they had already gone through for this plan, whoever was raiding the cemetery had _better_ try to hit this grave as well, Hannibal just smoked his cigar and chuckled at Face's histrionics. They drove back to the house and when they returned, Face made a beeline for the shower to wash every speck of dirt and grime off of his skin; he already despised having to get dirty, but cemetery dirt was a whole other thing in itself, he couldn't get it off fast enough.

The next day the newspapers came out with an obituary on the front page of a very well-to-do young man named Jonathan Crabtree suddenly dying at the age of 33 and his funeral was the day after tomorrow and would be at the Forever Peaceful Cemetery. The picture to go with the article was one of a very well made up Face so that he didn't look like himself at all. A coffin reserved for the service was being kept in a private room in the funeral home, around the clock Hannibal and Murdock would come in as one of the people working there and make sure nobody was nosing around it.

On the day of the actual funeral, the service itself was held off until late in the afternoon, which as the newspapers had explained, were the wishes of the family, that dear Jonathan Crabtree should be buried as the sun made its westward journey, and he would be buried with his most precious valuables enclosed in the casket with him. And also, the obituary made clear, he would be carried to his final resting place by his six friends who had served as Green Berets.

The costumes hadn't been any trouble to come by, they had been retrieved from the same set where Face and Murdock had borrowed a helicopter, and they couldn't thank Hollywood enough for doing another wretched movie about Vietnam. They'd found one that fit Jean and she managed to fit her rooster hair under her hat and they hoped it was enough that nobody watching the funeral recognized her.

They held off on bringing the casket out as long as they could so B.A. didn't have to stay in it any longer than was necessary. They had gotten as light of a casket as was possible to hold his weight and the oxygen tank, but they'd also managed to talk him into taking off his heavy jewelry for one night since they had to get this done right and convince everybody watching that a much smaller, lighter man was in the coffin.

"I still don't like this, Hannibal," he said as he climbed into the coffin.

"Look on the bright side, B.A.," Hannibal told him, "It'll all be over in a little while."

"I don't like hearing that either," B.A. growled at him.

"Just relax, B.A., you remember what to do?"

"Yeah yeah," he grumbled as Face reached in beside him and turned on the oxygen and started to slip the mask over his face, but B.A. made it clear he would do that himself, "But this plan better work, Hannibal, otherwise I'm gonna hurt somebody."

"I have a feeling you're going to do that even if the plan _does_ work," Face said as he started to close the lid, "Now watch your nose."

Slowly, the six of them lifted the coffin and carried it out to the hearse, and then rode out to the cemetery where a small group of maybe 12 people were gathered, and one priest. They got the coffin out of the car and carefully walked it over to the fresh grave and laid it down right by the hole. The people gathered around were dressed in black, the women had small birdcage veils on their hats and a few of the mourners wore black sunglasses. It was a short and bittersweet ceremony as prayers for the dead were recited and one by one the mourners came up to touch the coffin in one last farewell.

As the ceremony wound down and the guests started to leave, Hannibal and Face insisted they would put it in the ground themselves, and save the gravediggers one job anyway; it was a difficult task and Face wound up being the one to climb on top to fit it into the grave, he quickly came to the conclusion he did _not_ want to do this kind of thing for a living, and felt sorry for the people who did. He climbed back out, maintaining his neutral expression, and he and Hannibal grabbed the shovels and filled the grave up. It was only slightly easier than it had been to dig the grave in the first place. It had taken them four hours to dig the grave, because there were only two of them, they weren't experts at grave digging, and the ground was as hard as stone to try and dig, it only took them an hour to fully cover the grave, and the six Green Berets also exited the cemetery just before it got dark.

Once they got a few blocks away from the cemetery, Hannibal turned to Peter and Jason and told them, "We can take it from here, thanks for your help, guys."

"No problem Mr. Smith," Jason said as he shook the colonel's hand, "We're happy to help."

"Hope you catch these weirdoes," Peter added, "Why the hell would anybody want to steal a corpse?"

While Hannibal had a few words with the two stuntmen, Murdock turned and noticed they were short one Beret, Jean had disappeared and Murdock went around the corner and saw her leaning against a stone wall at the bottom of a highly elevated yard.

"You okay, Saint?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said as she pulled off her beret and wrung it like a dishcloth, "Just a little too realistic for my taste, you know what I mean?"

He did, he understood only too well, but he pushed that fact aside and assured her, "B.A.'s going to be just fine, he's got enough oxygen left in that tank to last half the night."

"But what if Hannibal's wrong? What if they don't show up?" Jean asked.

"Then he'll come up with another plan, he always does," Murdock told her.

"I just don't like it, Murdock, even if it isn't real I don't like the idea of _any_ of you guys being dead, and in the ground," Jean said as she slid against the wall and down to the ground. "B.A. stayed in the operating room with me the whole time those crackpot doctors were digging around inside of my chest trying to get the bullets out, he said that I woke up halfway through the surgery and had to be put under again. I didn't remember it at the time but since then I think I've been picking up pieces of that time in my memory. I do remember waking up after the surgery, the room was pitch dark and I was higher than a kite, but there was that big angry mudsucker, _still _there waiting, he said he'd be there when I woke up and he was. Then I woke up again and all of you were there, that was the proof I was still alive. I remember when we met last year and I remember all the horrible things I did to you guys, I don't know _why_ you bothered helping me."

"Well somebody had to do it and we were just the guys for the job," Murdock replied as he sat down on the ground beside her, "Besides, look how great we get along now."

Jean looked at him through the corners of her eyes and she laughed sadly and told him, "I'm sorry I put the ipecac in your soda."

Murdock chuckled and put his arm around her back and shoulder and told her, "Don't worry about it…hey," he turned to look at her and said, "Come on, we've got to get ready, it's almost showtime."

* * *

Hannibal, Face, Murdock and Jean changed out of their green coats and pants and into shirts and jeans that were black and dark blue so they were well camouflaged under the cover of darkness. They each had their own spots to reside in at the cemetery where they could wait and watch for anybody coming; and it was one hour, then two, and then finally they saw a truck drive into the cemetery without its lights on. Then came the most difficult part, waiting as the three men got out of the truck, went over to the new grave and started digging; it took them a lot less time to dig the grave up than it had taken Hannibal and Face to dig it. The suspense was killing the commandos as they waited for the right moment to strike. They heard the shovels hitting the dirt and tossing it, and after a while they heard the shovels scrape across the top of the coffin, and Hannibal knew the moment was near.

Two of the men tossed the shovels to the side and started to climb down into the grave when they heard something. They weren't sure what it was at first, then they heard it again, and they realized that the sound was coming from inside the coffin. Before anybody had a chance to even wonder what was going on, the whole casket started to shake violently, a moment later the whole thing broke apart in splintered wood as B.A. kicked his way out of the coffin and kicked it apart in the process. He shot up growling at the grave robbers, who were clearly scared half to death by this experience and they turned and ran for their truck, but they got cut off as the commandos came out of hiding and restrained them.

Murdock clicked his tongue at the guy he was holding and asked him, "Didn't anybody ever teach you to show some proper respect for the dead?" he changed gears and added, "Or not to hit girls?" At that, the men writhing in Murdock's grip turned and saw Jean come out from behind one of the larger tombstones and she flashed a sinister grin at him.

"Well Jean, you recognize these guys?" Hannibal asked as he kept another one in a full nelson.

"Yeah," she nodded, "I recognize them…these are the three stooges that left me in the middle of the road last week."

"That's all I needed to know," Hannibal said, "And I do believe retribution is in order…how many times would you guess that they hit you?"

"Oh I really couldn't say, Hannibal," she replied as she walked up to them, "I remember somebody doing this," she punched the man in the stomach and he turned his head to the side and groaned, "And this," and got him in the jaw with a left hook, "And one of these," and knocked him back with an uppercut.

Face and Murdock let her get in a few swings with their guys as well before Hannibal announced that all eight of them were going to take a little ride, and the men were going to show the team where they put the bodies that they stole and also what they did with the jewelry they stole from the bodies, and after that they were going to take a ride down to the police station. Face and Hannibal got the three men tied up and tied to each other so they couldn't make a run for it and as they got escorted to the van, Murdock stood back and applauded slowly and said, "Brilliant, colonel, that was brilliant…I loved it, no need for a retake." He reached up and took the movie camera down from the tree where he had positioned it so it caught everything, "Cut it, print it, that's a wrap, the camera never blinks, this is going to be perfect for the movie."


	10. Chapter 10

"They should've seen the looks on their faces when B.A. bust out of the coffin," Murdock laughed as they walked in the front door early the next morning. He was the only one still wide awake, both Hannibal and B.A. were tired, and Face and Jean walked leaning against each other for support as they had already closed their eyes and were just about to drop from exhaustion. "That was priceless, absolutely priceless."

"Shut up, Murdock," B.A. tiredly growled at him, "Before I bust your head to go with it."

They made it into the living room and Jean and Face made it over to the couch and fell on it beside Murdock who was fidgeting with the camera. Jean pulled one eyelid open and then the other and looked at Hannibal and tiredly said, "Have to admit I did like it when you told them they were under arrest for robbery, grand larceny, vandalism, grave robbing, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, the sinking of the Titanic, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the fall NBC lineup and anything else you could think of that was going wrong around here."

Hannibal tiredly smirked and said, "Somehow I expected more out of the medical students in this world. But I suppose it makes sense, they don't have access to any of the dead's belongings when they're working on them, so they'd have to take another route to get any financial gain out of their current education."

"Yeah but why did they take the bodies with them?" Face asked, "That's what I didn't get."

"Simple, Face, they knew that there was a chance somebody would discover the graves had been tampered with when they dug them up in the first place, so they just took the bodies out and threw them in that ravine behind the old power plant five miles away where nobody would ever look for them. That way when the inevitable discovery was made, it could never be determined just _why_ the bodies were taken," Hannibal explained.

"Clear as mud," Face tiredly mumbled into his fist that was holding up his chin.

"Well since it's all over now, and the dead have been recollected and can be put back to rest, I say we do the same thing and go on up to bed," Hannibal announced.

"Not me," Face groaned, "I'm too tired to move, I'm staying _right_ here."

"Me too," Jean added.

"Suit yourselves," Hannibal told them, "_I'm_ going to bed."

"Me too, man," B.A. grumbled as he and Hannibal left the living room.

"See you guys in the morning," Hannibal called back to them.

The three who remained looked at each other and hollered after the colonel, "It IS morning!"

"Fine, see you later," Hannibal replied as his voice traveled up to the second floor.

Face leaned back against the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table and mumbled under his breath, "Three o' clock in the morning, whoever heard of…how's a guy supposed to get any sleep around here?"

Regardless, within a couple of minutes he was dead to the world despite the awkward position he had half curled into. Jean had her arms folded against her chest and her head tilted back and had likewise fallen asleep beside him on the couch. Murdock looked over at his two friends and smiled to himself before returning to his work with the camera. After a while he started to get tired as well, he put the camera down, got up and carefully maneuvered Face and Jean so they each lay at opposite ends of the couch without crushing each other but each had their feet close to the other's face; and Murdock grabbed the blanket off the couch's back and draped it over the two of them, then settled himself in the recliner by the couch and slowly nodded off to sleep.

* * *

Jean turned her head to the side and realized that she wasn't in her bed, she opened her eyes and saw she was on the couch in the living room; the lights were on and it was still dark outside so it had to still be early in the morning. Jean tried to sit up and she realized that Face was asleep on the opposite side of the couch, she looked around and realized that Murdock wasn't there, but she heard noises coming from the kitchen so she carefully pulled her full body over to her side of the couch so she didn't wake Face up and she got up and padded into the kitchen.

Murdock had his back to her and stood by the counter, his head tilted back and she could see he had a mug in his hand and was drinking a fresh batch of coffee he'd made.

"You should've told me you were up," she said, loud enough for him to hear but low enough she wouldn't wake Face in the next room, "I would've made you breakfast."

Murdock didn't move his head forward until he'd drained the last drop from the cup and he put it on the counter, ran his sleeve over his mouth, half turned to see her and said, "I thought you said you didn't drink coffee."

"I don't," she answered as she walked over to him, "I keep that for company."

"Thanks," he told her, "Just hits the spot."

"Well," Jean said, changing the subject, "I guess all the excitement's over for the time being, now that those bums are in jail and the coroner's office is returning the missing bodies to the graves, and you guys are done in Fort Gulch, right?"

"Unless Bullen has a death wish," Murdock agreed, "We should be."

Jean half smiled tiredly and told him, "Well, I just wanted to say thank you for helping me, I really appreciate it."

He grinned at her and replied, "Just part of a day's work, sweetheart, you know you can always count on us. Besides, I'm glad we're done with that business because today we can resume filming."

"What've you got planned?" Jean asked.

* * *

Murdock got the camera focus at the image of Hannibal as he narrated, "This is Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith of the one and only A-Team."

Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth and grinned for the camera, "Hello all you people out there in TV land."

Murdock shifted the camera around to focus on B.A. and added, "And this is Sergeant B.A. Baracus, otherwise known as one angry mudsucker."

B.A.'s scowl almost cracked the lens as he told the cameraman, "Murdock, get that camera out of my face before I bust it _and_ you."

"Uh-uh-uh," Murdock clicked his tongue, "That's studio property, B.A." He turned around again and focused on Jean who was dressed in a pair of his blue jeans and her army jacket, "And this is the honorary Corporal Jean Rhodes, soon to be famous for her work in the Kamikaze Racer."

Jean smoothed back the few bangs she had left and simply said, "Hello."

"And that leaves us missing only _one_ person for this shoot," Murdock addressed the camera, "That is one Lieutenant Templeton 'Faceman' Peck…" Murdock looked over to the curtains covering the doorway to a small closet that had been converted into a dressing room, "Face we are waiting!"

"I'm not coming out," Face replied.

"Aw Face, come on," Murdock whined as he lowered the camera.

"I won't," Face insisted.

"Come on, Face, everybody's waiting, the camera's rolling," Murdock said.

Hannibal maintained a straight face and said, "Come out here, Lieutenant, that's an order."

They all heard Face huff and sigh before he pushed one foot through the curtains and the rest of him followed, dressed in a woman's nightgown and robe and wearing a woman's nightcap. The others managed to keep from laughing but they couldn't help the cracks and snickers that escaped them as well as the clearly amused looks on their faces, the cameraman included.

Face turned to Murdock and glared at him and demanded to know, "Murdock, why do you always insist on humiliating me like this?"

"Aw come on, Facey," Murdock said as he raised the camera again, "Somebody has to play the leading lady in this movie, and you lost the toss."

Face groaned and cringed and tried hiding his face in the crook of his arm and said, "Well let's just get this over with."

"Alright, alright," Murdock said, "Now in this movie we have the beautiful young lady," Face looked like he wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock somewhere, "And her big strong husband." Jean stood beside him and grinned and raised her flexed arms to show off her biceps, Murdock smiled and added, "And his visiting father-in-law, who has decided to stay with them until further notice, or next Christmas whichever comes first." Hannibal stepped into the picture alongside them and gave a little wave and continued to smoke his cigar.

"That's beautiful, Hannibal, that's just perfect," Murdock told him, "And we're going to cut it here, I want to get some exterior shots."

"Like what, Murdock us out in the front yard?" Face asked.

"No, I want us to get in the car and just film everything we drive by," Murdock explained, "I figured if we can get off the main road, the Saint can do some of her stunt driving, so we could use that footage to incorporate a chase scene into the film."

Face turned to Jean and told her, "The more he explains, the less sense he makes."

Jean shrugged and replied, "Oh well, could be fun. But we can't _all_ fit in my car."

"No problem," Hannibal said, "B.A. and I'll stay here."

"Chicken," Jean remarked.

"Better a chicken than a street pizza," Face commented as he pulled off the nightcap.

"Oh come on Face, you don't mean to say B.A. doesn't drive as bad as I do," Jean told him.

Face caught the murderous glare in B.A.'s eyes when she said that, and he responded, "No, _I_ don't, I'll let _you_ say it."

* * *

They had to wait for Face to change back into his regular clothes and then he, Murdock and Jean hopped in her car and went driving. Murdock half hung over the side of the car with the camera rolling and he recorded how fast the street signs and trees and lamp posts zoomed by. Face kept one hand full of the back of Murdock's jacket to make sure if they hit a speed bump, the pilot didn't fall out of the car and crack his head on the pavement below.

"Okay Saint," Murdock said after a while, "Now get us off this road and take us back to your obstacle course you did the test run on."

He pulled himself back into his seat and moved over to the middle of the backseat and started filming straight ahead so he could see what the driver saw, and as he got the focus right he asked, "Face, you got your seatbelt on?"

Face turned and looked to Murdock in the backseat with a bit of a worried expression on his face.

"Better strap yourself down, buddy," Murdock said as he looked through the lens and the windshield at the dirt road ahead, "Cuz I got a feeling we's about to get _wild._"

The deafening roar that filled Face's left ear, he realized, was the sound of Jean stepping on the accelerator and he watched as the needle on the speedometer climbed up to 40, then 50, then 60, and he looked up at the road ahead and saw how fast the trees went by and he just sat back against his seat and prayed that the car didn't turn over because he had a good idea they'd all be crushed to death or blown up, or maybe both.

The car veered sharply to the left, and then jerked clear to the right as it zigzagged along the dirt road and the rush sent Murdock's adrenaline to zenith and he almost felt like he was flying, his mouth was open and he realized he was almost howling. He turned the camera slightly to the left so he could get a closeup of the driver and he saw that Jean had an ear-to-ear grin on her face and she looked like she had found Shangri-Las. Face noticed this also and he made the comment, "She drives about like you fly, Murdock. I have an idea B.A. will never want to be in a car with this woman anymore than he'd want to be in a plane with you."

"Or _any_ plane," Jean corrected him.

Murdock smiled and opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped because Face's comment had gotten the gears in his head turning and he was starting to get another idea, and once he had a chance to think it all through, he loved this new idea, and he couldn't wait to get a chance to try it.

* * *

Everybody had gone to bed that night shortly after 11, B.A. was still occupying the downstairs bedroom and the others stayed upstairs, though Murdock had told Face that he wasn't tired and was going to stay downstairs for a while and watch TV and probably wouldn't be up until after Face had gone to sleep. That's what he told Face anyway.

It was now after midnight and the whole house was quiet; Jean was alone in her room and had fallen asleep with the window open to let in the breeze. She turned over from her side onto her back in her sleep, and then woke up when she felt a hand clamp over her mouth and press down firmly. She was hardly able to get a sound out at all, but she looked up and even in the dark she could identify her assailant as Murdock, who kept one hand over her mouth and with the other, raised his finger to his mouth and shushed her before he let go.

"What's wrong, Murdock?" she asked quietly as she sat up in the bed and looked at him.

He shook his head, "Nothing's wrong, Saint, I have a surprise for you."

"What's that?" she asked.

Murdock pulled the covers back and grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up and over towards the door, "Come on, I'll show you."

"Where're we going?"

"Out the fire escape," Murdock told her.

Jean dragged her feet in the carpet and put on her brakes and told Murdock, "Wait a minute, I can't go outside like this," and gestured at the pajamas she had on.

Murdock turned to her and assured her, "It's alright, nobody's going to see you."

"It's not that," she replied, "I make it a point not to go _anywhere_ without getting dressed first, just give me a minute." She broke away from him and went back to her room, but Murdock didn't follow after her since she left the door open, and he kept his back to the doorway as he waited for her to come out again. A minute later she emerged from the bedroom in her jeans, a black tank top, her army jacket and a pair of sneakers. "Alright, Murdock, now what's this surprise?"

"You'll see when we get there," he told her as they walked down the outside stairs leading down to the yard, "But we're going to have to take your car, you don't mind if I drive, do you?"

"I suppose I don't have much choice, do I?" she responded as she took the keys out of her pocket and gave them to him.

"If anybody asks, we just went for a drive," Murdock said.

Contradictory to Murdock's usual behavior, once they got on the road he became unusually quiet and made very little conversation with Jean about anything; and she likewise said nothing to him and just watched where they were going, which in the dark and with no headlights on was not easy by any means. But when they arrived at their intended destination, she was able to see one thing perfectly clear.

"That's the Huey you and Face used for the aerial shots," she said as she turned to look at Murdock.

"That's right," he answered as he opened the door, "I kept the keys and got it out of its hangar when nobody was looking."

Jean was tempted to ask who _wouldn't_ notice a Vietnam era black chopper suddenly taking off unexpectedly, but didn't.

"So what're we doing here, Murdock?" she asked him, "You drag me out of bed for a midnight flight, is that it?"

He smiled at her and said, "Well you're close…come here," he put his hand on her shoulder and walked her with him over to the chopper, "Did I ever tell you about the job we took for Bellar Air commercial flights?"

It didn't take Jean long to think about it and answer, "No."

"Well, this was a while before we met you and your parents…you see this terrorist group had hijacked a plane full of passengers, and were going to drop it in the ocean unless their demands were met. And Hannibal disguised himself as the owner of the airline company and he and Face went on in place of the hostages, and B.A. and I were supposed to sneak in through the cargo hold to bring in the guns and help take out the hijackers. But the plane took off right after we got onboard."

"Man, B.A. must've been freaking out," Jean said.

"Are you kidding?" Murdock asked her, "The man froze, he didn't move, he didn't blink, he didn't do anything! I slapped him and he _still_ didn't do anything."

"So what'd you do?" she asked.

"Well while I waited for the big _baby_ to come out of his shock, I had to go and knock them out one at a time and drag them down where we were…then B.A. finally came out of it and we went in to help Hannibal and Face, and I grabbed one goon with a gun, and it went off and I was blinded by the powder burn."

Jean stopped and looked at him, "You serious? You couldn't see?"

He shook his head with a small smile, "And let me tell you, that is one _very_ bad thing to have happen when there's nobody flying the plane and the blind man is the pilot."

Jean's eyes were wide as she asked Murdock, "Well what happened? You landed the plane, didn't you?"

"Of course we landed the plane," he told her, "But since I couldn't see anything, Hannibal had to fly the plane."

Jean squinted one eye and asked, "Does Hannibal know how to fly?"

"Nope."

She laughed a couple of times exaggeratedly and said, "That must've been a _lot_ of fun for B.A. But I don't get what that has to do with why we're out here."

"I'm getting to that," Murdock said, "You see none of the other guys have ever had any experience flying, so I had to talk Hannibal through everything and tell him what to do and we still had to stay in contact with the tower through the radio. It's really _not_ something I would ever care to go through again and I'm sure the others wouldn't either."

Jean gestured towards the chopper and asked him, "Well?"

Murdock shrugged innocently and said, "I can't talk Hannibal or Face into learning to fly, so I'm going to teach you instead."

Jean all but jumped back a foot and asked him, "What?"

"Well you never know when it's going to come in handy, and maybe it's true what they say about old dogs can't learn new tricks, but you're still young enough that you could actually learn it," he told her.

Jean's eyes traveled down to look at the ground for a minute before looking up at Murdock again and said, "I get the feeling that there's something more to this than you're letting on."

"Well you're a stuntman, right?" Murdock asked, "If you knew how to fly you could probably get a lot more work that way."

"Yeah but I wouldn't have a license," Jean reminded him.

Murdock brushed that little fact off and asked Jean, "When was the last time you saw a police chopper following a Huey and told it 'pull over to the nearest cloud and show me your pilot's license'?"

He could tell Jean was starting to consider it but she asked him, "And this couldn't have waited until it was daylight?"

He shook his head, "Too risky, besides, if you can learn to fly at night then you'll have _no_ problem doing it in the daytime, I can guarantee you that."

Jean bit her lip and looked over at the black bird and said, "I don't know, Murdock."

"Oh come on, Saint, it'll be fine," he told her, "You've flown with me before."

"Yeah, that's with _you_ keeping us in the air," Jean reminded him, "Don't those things go up about 1,000 feet a minute? How fast then do you think they can drop because the moron at the cockpit doesn't know what the hell they're doing?"

Murdock smiled at her and assured her, "Don't worry, it'll be fine, I'll take you up a couple of times first so you can get the idea on the basics and how all the controls work, then the _next_ time, I'll get us up _in_ the air, and I'll let you try _keeping_ us up there."

Jean looked back at the chopper and said, "Well, I guess I got nothing to lose."

"Great, come on," Murdock said as he started walking towards the bird. He then realized he was walking alone and he turned back and saw Jean was frozen where she stood, and he went back to her and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," she seemed to recover and told him, "It's just that the _last_ time I flew on a chopper…it was tied to the skid."

"What?" Murdock asked, half expecting it to be a joke.

"Another stunt," she explained, "That director was a _real_ piece of work…didn't want a dummy tied to the skids, no, that would be too easy, instead they had to have somebody actually up there moving so the audience could see it's a real person."

"How did they land it?" Murdock asked her.

"_Very_ carefully," was her answer.

Murdock scratched his head through his cap and said, "I swear these movie people are crazier than I am and I didn't think that was possible."

* * *

They managed to get back to the house a couple of hours before the others woke up. Murdock didn't think that this was something the other members of the team should know about, and in any case he didn't think that they would get why he was doing it. Every night for the next week after the others had gone to bed, Murdock and Jean sneaked out of the house and headed back to the vacant area where he had stashed the helicopter. Jean hadn't been called back to work yet though she had heard through the grapevine about one of the choppers coming up missing for the Vietnam picture, but she kept her mouth shut tight on that one.

"At this rate," she told the men one day at breakfast, "They're going to think that studio's haunted, things keep coming up missing that you can't _possibly_ logically explain away, a camera disappearing isn't any big deal, but a whole damn helicopter, good luck on that one."

"Aren't you due back for more stunt work soon?" Hannibal asked her from where he sat at the table glancing over the morning paper.

"With two other guys to handle it and only another 20 minutes of driving to film, I doubt it," Jean told him as she collapsed in the chair beside him, "They're going to have that picture finished without any further assistance from me."

"You know," Face said, half jokingly, "It's too bad they can't do a movie that features both the Aquamanaic and the Kamikaze Racer, that would be a kick."

Hannibal stuck his nose up and replied haughtily, "I refuse to share the space on the silver screen with another freak of nature."

"You'd love it and you know it," Face remarked teasingly.

"He'd probably love any movie so long as it was a job," Jean commented.

"And you?" Face asked her.

She shrugged and said, "For the most part, yeah, as long as I got a job I'm happy."

"Hey Hannibal," Murdock said as he came into the kitchen carrying the movie camera, "I just had another great idea for this movie."

"Well let's hear it," Hannibal said as he turned the paper over to read the back.

"Why don't we do a movie about us?" Murdock asked.

"Oh come on, Murdock," Face said, "This isn't going to be like when you said they ought to do a TV show about us, is it? I told you nobody would watch that."

"Oh come on, Facey," Murdock grunted as he put the camera on the table, "I've got a great idea, we do a fictional story about us, you know, 'only the names have been changed to protect the innocent', like that movie they did about the Starkweather case back in the 70s, remember that?"

"I don't recall that being a big hit though," Jean told Murdock, "Or was it?"

Murdock shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know, but it could work, that way we get to be in it and we could release it under different names. Nobody would ever know where we came from or where we went."

Hannibal smirked over his cigar and said, "Have to admit there's something to a plan like that, the only problem is you couldn't build a career on it, it would have to be a one time thing."

Murdock moped as he considered that fact but he was still determined to find a way to make it work, so he wracked his brain trying to think of a solution.

* * *

Hannibal heard the explosion in his ears and he shot up in bed to see what had happened. A second later he realized that it was storming outside and it was just the thunder crashing that had woken him up. He waited until his heart went back down to his chest, then got up and closed his window, which had already blown in enough rain to sail a toy boat in. He peered out the window and looked down at the ground below and saw that the rain had been pouring down for some time as there were puddles everywhere and the sidewalk had pretty much become a running river.

He thought back to earlier in the night when he had gone to bed, he didn't remember anything about rain, so either it had just poured down at warp drive, or it was later in the early morning than he thought. Feeling around for the nightstand, he found the clock and at the next flash of lightning he saw that it was going on 3 o' clock in the morning. Hannibal set the clock down but didn't get back into bed yet. He listened to the raging storm outside and he also listened to the inside of the house to try and see if anything was going or if anybody else seemed to be up. Inside the house was as quiet as the proverbial tomb, but he decided it wouldn't do any harm to take a look and make sure. Being in the war they had all come back with their share of trauma, which led to many nights either without any sleep, or with sleep but also plenty of nightmares, and sometimes a storm like this could trigger them very easily. They never forgot the rain, and even though it was different back home, it could play hell with the subconscious late at night.

Stepping quietly, Hannibal opened the door to his room and peered out into the hall, nothing, no sign of anybody, not a sound from any of the rooms. He decided that B.A. could wait and he'd be the last checkpoint because the sergeant was prone least to nightmares of the four of them, at least as far as he would let on. But Murdock and Face often were and could be a different story altogether, and with good reason; with Face it was no mystery, he was the youngest, he was still a damn kid when the war happened, he was exposed to things at an early age that nobody should have to be, but especially not a young one. And Murdock…B.A. was right, ever since Murdock had crashed his plane in 'Nam…well, Hannibal wouldn't say that that was what made Murdock crazy, but it had definitely rattled the pilot, as well as his confidence, and maybe even his sanity. As sure as he always was of his flying capabilities, that was one thing that haunted Murdock most of all and he hated to admit it; recurring nightmares going back to that flight, or any flight, and something went wrong and he wasn't able to bring them in for a safe landing. Those were probably the most normal nightmares any of them could have after what they had lived through, but all the same anytime somebody woke up in the middle of the night with flashbacks, it was never a pretty picture. As an afterthought it occurred to Hannibal that it would be a good idea to check on Jean too; she had her own share of experiences that nightmares were made of, he could only imagine what happened when they weren't around to see it.

First he checked Face and Murdock's room, quietly pushing the door open, he looked into the dark room and when the lightning flashed again he was able to see that Face was sound asleep in the bed, one down. But Murdock was nowhere to be found, so Hannibal closed the door behind him and headed off towards Jean's room; opening that door he looked in and even before the lightning hit he was able to make out two lumps in the bed. When the lightning illuminated the room he saw that Murdock and Jean were lying next to one another and both of them looked out cold for the night. Three down, now Hannibal could breathe a little easier; he pulled the door shut behind him and quietly made his way to the stairs to make sure B.A. was asleep also.

* * *

What Hannibal didn't realize was the reason why the whole house was so dark was because the power had gone out earlier in the night. Around midnight, Murdock had gone to Jean's room for some company since Face had fallen asleep on him. She let him in and he joined her in the room and they watched a movie on TV, as it turned out, 'Halloween' was showing on channel 23. They'd kept the lights on but that did little to dampen the creepy mood in the enclosed room as the movie progressed and the storm outside built up. Around 1 o' clock, just as the movie neared its climax, there was a loud CRACK and the whole room went quiet, and dark.

As soon as the power went out, Murdock shot up and was half prepared to attack; the first thought that entered into his mind was not that the storm had zapped the power out, but rather that somebody had deliberately cut the power to sneak in on them. He heard Jean over on the other side of the room trying to make her way around in the dark and he shook that thought aside and considered how silly it seemed; he got up and quietly called over to Jean and tried to follow the sound of her voice to find her first.

"Are you alright?" he asked when he finally found her hand to grab in his own.

"I'm fine," Jean answered, though he could tell from her voice that she was about as shaken up by the sudden blackout as he was, "Are you?"

"Right as deodorant," Murdock answered as he progressed his hand up Jean's arm and felt the slight trembling working its way through her body. He tried to lighten up the current situation and he asked Jean, "What's the matter, Saint? Don't they have storms back in New York that put the power out?"

"Only in the winter when the ice sticks to the lines and pulls them down," she answered, "I thought this only happened in movies."

Murdock couldn't help laughing and he told her, "It's funny, I just thought of something, when we got ambushed at the cemetery, I didn't think of it at the time but it reminded me of what you said last year."

Jean turned to him and asked, "What did I say?"

"No, that night at the hotel when it rained and we were telling ghost stories, remember?" he saw her head move and realized she was trying to remember it, "You told us about the woman who was chased out of the cemetery by the ghosts and they ripped her coat to shreds? Kind of similar to what happened to us a while back."

"I hadn't thought of it," she told him.

Murdock kept one arm on her as he made his way over to the window and he pulled up the blind and looked down to see if he could make out anything; he was sure that the power surge was caused by the storm but still he wanted to make sure there wasn't anybody creeping around down below. When lightning hit again, everything was lit up in a sort of pale blue light and he was able to make out the ground and see how much rain had already fallen, but he didn't see anybody down there. Jean didn't say anything but he saw her looking too and he knew she was thinking the same thing. He turned to her and suggested, "We could go down and make sure the doors are still locked and all the windows are shut."

Jean nodded and agreed, "We could."

"But I don't think if anybody did try busting into this house that they would get past B.A.," Murdock continued, "He's worse than any guard dog."

Jean nodded again and said, "I guess all that we can do now is go to bed."

"Unless you want to go get Face up and the three of us could do something," Murdock told her.

Jean shook her head, "No thanks."

Like a couple of children, they kept a tight grip on each other's hands and ran straight towards the bed and leapt on it and crawled under the covers still with all their clothes on, only as an afterthought did it occur to them to take off their shoes. Murdock had forgotten to put the blind back down, and when the room became bright again from the lightning he saw Jean lying on her side away from him and her whole body seemed to tense up and he asked her, "You scared, Saint?"

"No," she answered definitely.

Murdock nodded and added, "Me either." When the room was dark again he was quick to take advantage of it so she wouldn't see that he had taken a gun out of his jacket pocket and was slipping it just behind his pillow where he could grab it at a moment's notice if he had to during the night. Then reaching over to the other side of the bed, he slipped his arm around Jean's back and pulled her slightly towards him and told her, "Don't worry, Saint, if the electricity's not back on again by morning, we'll have B.A. take a look at the fuses, that's most likely what it is if it ain't the storm."

Jean said nothing and just slightly nodded her head, as she moved her head Murdock realized that she had resumed her previous position of having her ear over his heart. He wouldn't ask what was going through her mind but he could guess and he thought he had a pretty good idea of what it was. Subconsciously he tightened his grip on her and assured her, "Don't you worry about anything, ain't _anything_ gonna happen tonight while we're here."

"I know _that_, Murdock," she told him.

* * *

By the next morning the power was back on and the TVs and half the clocks had to be reset; outside an inch of rain had gathered and sunk into the ground and turned a better part of the yard into a mud pit. And despite the weather reports that the rain could resume again at any time that day, Murdock decided they needed to go out and get some more footage for his movie. So he, Face and Jean piled into her convertible and she drove them back along the same path that she had before and got them off the main road and ran them along her obstacle course in the woods.

"Murdock," Face told him, "You already shot this once, how many more times do you need this footage?"

"It's like you're always saying, Faceman," Murdock said haughtily as he stood up in the backseat and adjusted the lens, "We're going to keep doing it until we get it right."

"When did I ever…ohhhh, never mind, I remember now," Face replied.

They ran the practice track once more and as they neared the end of the dirt path and came upon the road leading them back to civilization, Murdock sat back down in the seat and put his camera down just before Jean hit the brakes and he got thrown against the back of the front seats.

"What was that for?" Murdock asked.

"Stop sign," Jean pointed, "I might be a crazy driver but I ain't getting a ticket."

Going straight ahead would put them on a 4-lane paved road that already had heavy traffic coming and going on both sides; Face stood up in the front seat to see if there was any sign of the motorcade coming to an end sometime soon and he saw something that made him drop back down in his seat and he told Murdock, "Get down."

"What is it, Faceman?" Murdock asked.

Zipping right past them on the lane second from where they turned on was a jeep and though it went by in a blur they were able to make out the olive drab clothes and cap and the squinted eyed glare of…

"Decker," Face and Murdock said.

Jean caught herself just in time to keep from joining them as he remembered nobody but Murdock knew about her run-in with the man. She looked the way he was going and she pointed east and asked Face, "What's that way?" though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"The…" Face's eyes widened as he and Murdock both answered, "The V.A."

Jean turned to Face and asked him, "You think Decker's going to see Murdock?"

"I don't know but we better get him back there just in case," Face said, "Can you get us over there before Decker arrives?"

Jean backed the car up and tore through the dirt and gravel road through the woods and though the road didn't run straight she managed to keep the car going that way as she pressed the accelerator against the floor and the speedometer read 75.

"What're you going to do?" Jean asked.

"If we can get there before Decker does," Face answered, "I'll get Murdock sneaked back into his room, and I'll pass the word along to the nurses that if _anybody_ asks, he's been there this whole time."

"Face!" Jean turned to look at him, "Why is he coming to see Murdock? I thought you said _nobody_ knew Murdock was the fourth member of the A-Team."

"They don't!" Face answered, "Or at least they shouldn't!" He turned to look back at Murdock and asked, "Who would've told Decker anything about it?"

Jean shook her head grimly and told him, "I don't like this guy, Decker…granted I didn't like Lynch either but this guy Decker worries me, what if he finds out? What's he going to do then?"

"Murdock's just going to have to convince Decker he's as insane as everybody at the V.A. thinks he is," Face told her, "That's all there is to it!"

Murdock's mind was racing, "I guess ammonia's out of the question this time."

Face watched the road ahead of them and when they came a couple blocks close to the V.A. he had Jean stop the car so nobody would see her, and he and Murdock got out of the car and Murdock bid her adieu before they headed up to the hospital; but Face told her that he would be back in a few minutes and warned her not to go anywhere. Jean sat in the driver's seat with her head down and both thumbnails in her mouth to chew on while she waited for Face to get back. A few minutes later she saw him running back to the car and as he jumped over the side and back into the front seat he told her to get them out of there before Decker showed up.

"What happened?" Jean asked.

"Just status quo for the V.A. and us," he told her as he straightened his tie, "Murdock's back in his room and nobody's shown up to see him yet, but I convinced the nurses that for matters of national security, it is vital that nobody knows Murdock's been gone for the last couple of weeks."

"That's the easy part, but now what about Decker?" Jean asked him.

Face looked at her in surprise, then back at the road ahead of them and said, "It's all in Murdock's hands now."

"God help him," Jean added as she drove them steadily along back through the woods at 80 miles an hour.


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't understand what you want with Mr. Murdock," one of the nurses at the V.A. told Decker as she walked him to Murdock's room, "He's been very lethargic for the past few weeks and he's sedated right now, he's been very upset lately."

"About what?" Decker wanted to know.

The nurse half looked at Decker as if she was debating if she should actually tell him, but she finally decided to and answered in a hushed voice, "His dog."

"His dog?" Decker repeated in something of disbelief.

"Of course you understand the dog isn't real," the nurse assured him, "It's only a figment of Mr. Murdock's imagination, but he gets violent if anybody tries to tell him that."

"And what's his problem with the dog now?" Decker asked.

"I'm really not sure, but that's why he had to be sedated earlier," she told him, "So I don't know how much help he'll be to you."

"Oh I'm sure he'll be enough help for what I want with him," Decker replied self assuredly.

They came to the door for Murdock's room and Decker looked in the small screened window and saw Murdock sprawled out in bed with his eyes wide open and his mouth slightly hanging open as well. His eyes weren't focusing on anything in the room, instead it was like every part of him was a million miles away.

"Good luck, Colonel," the nurse said as she unlocked the door, "You'll need it."

Decker went into the room and shut the door behind him and walked over to the bed and watched for any sign that Murdock was faking this, which he was sure the pilot was, but right now it looked very realistic.

"Murdock, can you hear me?" he asked.

The man didn't even blink, he just stared up towards the ceiling and ignored the trail of saliva pouring down the corner of his mouth.

"You know who I am, Murdock?" he asked firmly as he got right in Murdock's face, "It's Colonel Decker, you remember me?" No answer, no response. "The nurses tell me you've been upset lately about your dog…what's his name, Billy?" Nothing, the pilot's eyes looked glazed over and never moved. There wasn't a single muscle movement in his whole body that indicated he even understood what Decker was saying, but Decker still wasn't ready to buy it. He made himself at home and sat down at the foot of Murdock's bed and continued talking, "I'm told by the nurses that you haven't had any visitors…but they tell me you were taken out of here a couple months ago, something about bubonic plague, does that ring a bell?"

Obviously it did not, so Decker tried something else. "You know your friends the A-Team, did you hear about the job they pulled over in Kuwait last spring? You know to get over there they had to fly? But nobody on the A-Team flies, _do_ they, Murdock? Even Smith doesn't know how to fly, I know that much. So how do you think they got over there? They didn't use an airline, they didn't charter a plane, so the only explanation left is that they knew somebody who _could_ fly them over there. Who do you think that was, Murdock?"

Murdock finally blinked but otherwise did not move, a low gurgling emerged from somewhere in his throat but he paid no attention to it.

"You might have those doctors fooled, Murdock, but you don't fool me, I think you know a _lot_ more than you've ever told anyone," Decker said, "How could a crazy person ever fly?" A thought occurred to him that he was sure would get a response out of Murdock, he inched over closer to the pilot until he was practically in Murdock's face and asked him, "Have you flown since you crashed your plane back in 'Nam, Murdock?"

The brick wall still remained. Decker was starting to think he truly wouldn't get anywhere. He had heard the stories about when Lynch came to see Murdock, and the man stood on his dresser and rambled on about ammonia and his dog Billy, but this was something new entirely. He'd seen some patients act like this, the catatonic ones, but just plain sedated on top of insane? Never. Decker looked around at the contents of Murdock's hospital room and noticed a cigar box lying on the nightstand and decided to help himself. But before he could open the flap, which would've revealed instead that that was where Murdock kept his medals, and the pilot worried that Decker might notice one was missing; because after all he made it his life work to know everything possible about the A-Team in order to try and catch them, and he might just notice that the Air Medal was gone, Murdock shot up in bed and screamed, "BILLY!"

The sudden outburst shocked Decker and he spun around to see what was going on, though he wouldn't admit it he could feel his heart jump up to his neck.

"Yes, Murdock, _what_ about Billy?" Decker asked.

But even now Murdock made no sign that he was aware of Decker's presence in the room. He looked straight ahead at the wall, with a look on his face like he'd just lost his best friend, a few seconds later he burst into tears and threw his head back howling like a wounded animal. He looked up at the ceiling and started screaming, "Billy! Oh Billy! My poor little dog, he never did anything to anybody, why did they take him away from me?"

Decker was still determined to get some answers out of Murdock, and right now he would settle for any answers, so he asked Murdock, "_Who_ took him, Murdock?"

By now Murdock was almost incoherent and for the most part he couldn't even talk, he just bawled and gestured with his hands as he tried to speak, finally Decker was able to hear a clear line of, "He was a good dog, he never hurt anybody, they took him away from me, they took him to Holland and I'll never see him again!"

Moving faster that Decker's eye could see, Murdock lunged to the side and grabbed Decker around the throat and throttled him as he spoke, looking ahead to the wall again, "You see? You see! They're taunting me! Oooh they know I'm miserable and they're out there _laughing_ at my expense!"

Decker managed to get Murdock's hands peeled off of his throat just before the pilot would've knocked his head back against the wall, and he made a quick move for the door and was just about to reach it when the door opened and the same nurse came in and shook her head at Decker and said, "I tried to warn you."

Decker swung his hand back towards Murdock and asked, "_That_ is sedated?"

"We've already tried upping the dosage but the doctors said if it's increased anymore it might kill him," she answered, "He's been on the medications for so long they don't have much effect anymore."

Decker left the room with the nurse and the door closed loudly behind them and was relocked. Murdock twisted and turned on the bed carrying on in histrionics for a few minutes, then when he sensed all was quiet, he got up from the bed and went over to the window for a quick peek. There wasn't anybody out there, and he couldn't hear any voices coming from the hallway either, so he turned on his heel and ran back for his bed and jumped over the foot of it and made a crash landing on the thin squeaky mattress and buried his face in the pillow laughing. He hadn't been sure at first about trying this new act but now he decided it was the perfect one for the job, after this he doubted very much if Decker or anybody would be back to bother him.

* * *

"And _then_," Jean wrapped up the long story for Hannibal's benefit since she had been taking the long way around since she and Face got back to the house and met with the colonel and the sergeant in the dining room. Throughout her entire explanation, Hannibal had remained quiet and passive and watched the two of them sitting at the table as she spoke, and she knew the deadpan look on his face was just a cover and he was waiting for the first second she had to breathe so he could lunge in with his own response, "Once we got Murdock dropped back off at the V.A., Face got him checked back in with some cover story for the nurses incase Decker asks and we came back here, and that's all."

"Took you long enough to say it," B.A. commented.

"Are you sure that Decker was alone when he went to see Murdock?" Hannibal asked suspiciously, "That man never goes anywhere alone, usually wherever he goes he has a dozen MPs and a couple of army squad cars with him, not a jeep."

"Hannibal, I'm telling you what we saw," Jean told him, "What do you think he wants with Murdock? Do you think he's got it figured out?"

Face looked to Hannibal and asked him, "_Do_ you think he's figured out Murdock's the pilot?"

"I don't know," Hannibal replied, "But Murdock ought to be able to throw Decker off the track easily enough. By now he's probably making his retreat empty handed."

"Then we can go back and get him?" Jean asked as she stood up from the table, but the colonel's response was a slow shake of his head.

"Decker may have retreated, but he's still sniffing for blood in the water," Hannibal explained, "He's not going to be _gone_ from the picture for a few days. And besides, he may start having someone watch to see if anybody comes to take Murdock out for any particular reason."

Jean look like she'd been punched in the stomach, "You mean Murdock's just going to be left in that loony bin to rot?"

That statement surprised Hannibal and he and Face both looked at Jean as if _she_ were the crazy one.

"It's not like it's his first time there," Face tried to explain.

But Jean was defiant and she pulled away from him and responded, "And that justifies it I suppose?"

Face felt like he'd fallen head first through the looking glass, and he couldn't even think of how to ask Hannibal what was going on. Jean looked at Hannibal and told him, "Hannibal, he's your friend, by rank he's the second in command, how can you leave him there?"

"We don't have any choice, Jean," Hannibal told her, "As long as Murdock _is_ there and he's certifiably insane, he's safe, the minute he'd get cleared and declared sane, Decker would come after him with the whole army to get answers out of him. Believe me, he's safer there in the hospital right now than he would be out here."

Jean did not look convinced, and Face thought, if anything she looked like she wanted to rip somebody's throat out, so he slowly inched away from her before she got any ideas.

"What's going to happen to him?" she wanted to know.

Hannibal shrugged it off and answered, "He goes back to slipping pills under his tongue, attending meetings with his doctors, takes a few ink blot tests, mingles with the other patients, and when we know the coast is clear, we'll go get him out again. We've been doing this long enough that it's a routine we have down cold by now, so don't worry about it, Jean, Murdock's going to be just fine."

* * *

Face and the others didn't come back to get Murdock after Decker had left; he had expected as much. Even if Decker _did_ think Murdock was crazy, and he was sure he'd done a good job of convincing the colonel, it wouldn't be above him to just go back to wherever he came from, he'd probably stick around for a couple of days to see if anybody else from the A-Team came to see him at the hospital or to break him out. Well, at least for the time being it was nice to be home again. Murdock knew he'd have a few days' wait ahead of him and decided to make the most of it; he got reacquainted with all his neighbors and caught up with what was new with them, which all amounted to very little. When he was alone in his room he wrote letters to Billy, but he always tore them up or turned them into paper bomber jets because he decided he didn't like what he'd written.

Every so often Murdock could hear the oh so familiar whirr of a plane or a copter flying overhead somewhere; it drove half of the other patients crazy and sent some of them crawling under their beds, but it made Murdock want to be able to jump through the ceiling and get out of there and get back in the cockpit where he belonged. Once it occurred to him that it might be a military copter up there, maybe Decker was getting a bird's eye view of the helicopter. Well good luck, colonel, he thought, Decker wasn't going to find any secret escape route, especially not from _that_ direction. Him being the pilot of course they could never rush him out of here and into a waiting helicopter, though it would be fun if they'd ever try it sometime.

Murdock remembered what Jean had told him about when she was in the hospital with Decker waiting to get answers out of her. Indeed the colonel _could_ be patient when he wanted to be, though he often preferred to just bust into some place and start blowing everything to bits, but you didn't get to be colonel in the United States Army by being a loose cannon, not in the beginning anyway. Indeed, Decker could be patient, but so could Murdock, so let Decker wait around for a sign, he wouldn't find anything, Murdock would be perfectly contempt to stay here now that he was back, and it would be just as if he had never left. He would stay here, day in, day out, until the coast was clear, when the others would come for him again. He'd had plenty of practice with that over the years, and he would just stay here and wait patiently until the next time Face came to bust him out, or scam him out, or whatever it was Face had planned for next time.

The days always passed slower back in the V.A., it was all a matter of routine; he had his pills to pretend to swallow and then get rid of later, he had his sessions with the doctors, more questions about anything he was willing to talk about, which turned into a lot of things, but none of them the subjects the doctors actually wanted to discuss. Sometimes the doctors wanted to show him ink blots, but he always got the answers wrong; it didn't matter much to him because half the time he deliberately said the thing furthest from what the blobs looked like. But one time he got very annoyed at the doctor's response and asked him, "Why don't these tests work like IQ tests, doc? No right or wrong answers, just answers, why don't these inkblots work the same way?" But he didn't get a satisfying answer on that one.

He managed to make it a week before he started to get stir crazy from not having a mission to go on and not being able to fly. After the bed checks that night, he got up and paced around the room in the dark; but after a while he found that boring and decided if he wasn't going to sleep, he'd get the others up as well. It had been a while since he'd gotten anybody riled up over anything so he thought it would be a good time to break that habit. They needed something to get them out of the everyday routine rut of the hospital. So instead of aimlessly pacing, he marched around the room singing at the top of his lungs, 'Over the Wall We Go', and halfway through the song he stopped when he heard a faint knocking at the window.

"Hello, who is it?" he asked in his British accent.

There was a muffled response that answered, "Double 3-4-9-2, Gov."

Murdock perked up, Face had finally come back for him! "Oh 'ang on a minute!" he replied as he headed over to the window to open it. He hadn't realized until now that it had started raining sometime during the night and now it was just about pouring. Murdock got the window up and looked out for Face, but he didn't see the conman anywhere in the dark. He looked left, then looked right, and in the corner of his left eye he saw a hand reaching for his arm on the windowsill, and he turned to see…

"Jean!" he jumped back in surprise, "What're you doing here?"

"Breaking in," Jean answered as she climbed up to the window. She must have made the journey on foot because she was half soaked to the bone. Murdock threw the window wide open and helped her in, then closed the window behind her. He realized after the fact that the storm must've knocked the power out, otherwise an alarm would've gone off by now.

"What're you doing here, Saint?" Murdock asked her again.

Jean huffed and puffed a couple of times and Murdock could see that she was shaking as she tried to catch her breath before she explained, "After we got you back here, I asked Hannibal when they were coming back to break you out…" she shook her head, "He said since Decker was around, it wouldn't be anytime soon. They've all gone back to their own places by now, so I thought I'd come here and see you."

Murdock went back to the window and asked her, "Did anybody see you?"

"Murdock," Jean huffed, "It's 1:30 in the morning, who's going to be up to look?"

"Well you never know," he said, then turned back to her and hugged her, "You're freezing."

"It hailed earlier, that's why," Jean said, and laughed a bit hysterically as she told him, "Los Angeles looks like it got a snowstorm for the first time ever."

Even in the dark Murdock could see just how soaked through she was and he asked her, "Did you walk here?"

"I left my car a few blocks away incase Decker would still be nosing around like the dog he is," she answered, "Hannibal said they'd be watching for somebody breaking out…well," she said with a shiver, "He never said anything about somebody breaking _in_ to this booby hatch. So, how did things go with Decker? He _did_ come here, didn't he?"

"Of course he did," Murdock replied, "You knew he would…he came and he tried to get me to talk, just like Lynch did, but," he grinned and shook his head, "He didn't have anymore luck than Lynch did either. As far as Uncle Sam's boys know, I am the _king_ of the cuckoos!"

There was something else to this late night visit that Jean wasn't telling him and it was as obvious as a rhinoceros in the room, and he finally asked her, "What's going on, Saint? What's the real reason you came here tonight?"

Jean ignored the state her clothes were in and sat down at the foot of Murdock's bed and told him, "I'm going to be going back to work soon."

"Well that's good!" he said, then when he realized she wasn't perking up, he asked, "Isn't it?"

Jean kept her gaze low as she explained, "Peter Kellerman is in the hospital…he was doing a stunt run for the film and the car got top heavy on a sharp turn and tossed him over in it."

"Is he alright?" Murdock asked.

She eluded that question for a moment and said, "That's _why_ I'm going back to work…they need someone else to complete the run…he's going to be alright, he lucked out, no broken bones, but the doctors are advising he stay in the hospital for at least a week." Jean put her hands on her knees and nervously rocked back and forth on the bed and said, "It's this kind of thing that hits home for all of us because it _could_ be any of us next time…I didn't want to be alone tonight so I had a choice of who to look up, you or Jason Crowley, the _other_ stunt driver, and you know something, Murdock?"

He leaned forward with his sympathetic ear ready as ever, "What?"

Jean looked up at him and with an expression on her face that would almost be funny, she cracked as she told him, "I don't _like_ Crowley!"

Murdock laughed sympathetically as he sat down beside her on the bed and put his arm around her, and was surprised when he felt both of Jean's arms squeezing so hard around his back that he couldn't breathe. A minute later when they pulled away from each other, Murdock noticed she was looking around the room, and he asked her, "What's the matter?"

She turned and asked him, "Is it _always_ this quiet at night?"

Ah, now he knew what it was, she wasn't looking around the room, she was trying to listen through the walls, and wasn't hearing any of the usual sounds associated with the inside of a mental hospital. Nobody screaming through the walls, no senseless jumble of people talking to themselves, definitely no chains rattling and also no sounds of the electricity surging as somebody got their daily dosage of electrocution therapy. Those were the things everybody always expected to hear when they set foot in a place like this, and they weren't always wrong.

"Sometimes," he answered as he turned back to see her. He paused to listen to the rain beating down outside and he told her, "Well, since you're going to be my guest for the night, I'll find something you can change into," he pointed to a door on the other wall and added, "That's the bathroom, you can change in there."

"Thanks, Murdock," Jean replied as she started taking her shoes off.

He found a spare set of his pajamas and she returned from the bathroom a minute later changed into them and was still adjusting the collar of the shirt, "How does it look?"

"Looks nice," Murdock gave her a thumbs up.

Jean smoothed out the wrinkles in the shirt and said, "I seem to wear you guys' clothes quite a bit."

Murdock looked her up and down once and remarked, "It's a good look on you."

Jean ignored his comment and went over to his nightstand and picked up a framed photograph, even though it was too dark to tell just who it was a picture of, she could guess, and she asked Murdock, "And what about this Amy Allen woman? Does _she_ make a habit out of wearing your pajamas as well?"

Murdock laughed and answered, "Hardly, she's never even been here more than a couple of times to assist Face in breaking me out."

Jean put the picture down and asked Murdock, "Is she your girlfriend?"

He shook his head and answered, "Nope."

"Well Face doesn't seem to be interested in her, there has to be a reason for that, doesn't there?" she asked.

"He's not interested in you either, remember?" Murdock asked.

Jean shrugged and replied, "Just as well because I'm not interested in him either, but what about this woman Amy? What's she like?"

"Oh…" Murdock was wound up for the pitch and starting to take off, "She's niiiice!"

"So what's the problem?" Jean asked as she sat down beside him on the bed, ignoring how tight of a fit it was for two people on a single bed, and a cheaply put together one at that, "It's obvious you like her, and if Face doesn't want her…"

"Yeah well," Murdock reached up with one hand and flipped his cap off and scratched his hair, "I think Amy could do better than us, maybe somebody who _isn't_ wanted by the entire U.S. Army."

"She helps you guys on missions, doesn't she?" Jean asked, "Like what she did with the newspaper before she left?"

Murdock nodded, "It's come in _very_ handy for us having her around, being a reporter she can…"

"She's very lucky," Jean cut him off, and sensing that she did it to get his attention, Murdock watched her as she explained, "I'm sure she realizes her position and the great value of it; there's only room for four people on the A-Team, that's all there's _ever_ going to be and there's certainly no room for any woman on the team, but she's the closest thing there is to one. She helps you more than most do, she must really like you guys."

"I think she gets a kick out of coming with us on jobs," Murdock said, and he went off on a rant about all the times Amy had assisted them on missions and all the great things about her that he liked, when it finally dawned on Murdock that Jean had fallen asleep next to him on the bed. So for the time being he shut up, and carefully rolled Jean over to his side and away from the edge, making sure to position her head against his chest again; if this helped keep the nightmares at bay he was all for that, in any case the last thing they needed was the night staff coming in because they'd heard a woman screaming in the night. It was bad enough that he wasn't allowed a roommate in this place but they would especially know something was awry if they heard a woman in the room. Then in the morning he would get Jean up and help her get out of here before the nurses came in during the wakeup call, a very simple plan to pull off. For the time being he wrapped an arm around her back and kissed the top of her head and said quietly, "Sleep tight, kid."

* * *

A week had passed since Jean had come to see Murdock at the V.A., and after she had left the next morning life resumed as usual; he mingled with the other patients and chatted it up with the young nurses that came in to bring him his medication, and for the most part he just stayed in his room and played his video games. That night he was in bed, half asleep and trying to get the other half of himself to catch up, when he heard a light tapping sound coming from the window. He opened his eye and rolled over to see who was there, and was surprised when he saw Face knocking on the glass. Murdock sprang out of bed and jumped over to the window and threw it open, and asked as Face climbed in, "Are we busting out, Face?"

"Not tonight, Murdock," Face answered as he came into the room and shut the window behind him.

Murdock felt his spirit drop at Face's answer and he was about to ask what was going on then, when he saw that Face had a travel bag strapped over his shoulder. Face turned around to meet the pilot's gaze and he said explanatorily, "I've come to take you up on the offer to spend the night, is that alright?"

Somebody had just pressed the up button on his spirits again and he about flew through the ceiling, "Yeah that's fantastic, Faceman, I just wish I'd known you was coming so I could pick up a bit."

"That's alright, Murdock," Face assured him, "I doubt it'll make much difference anyway."

Murdock grabbed at the bag Face was carrying and tried to get it open, "So watcha got here, Facey?"

He opened it up and grabbed a silk pajama shirt and tossed it behind him, much to Face's displeasure, and while Face grumbled about wrinkles, Murdock also pulled out the pants that went with it, and sent them flying, and then took out two bottles of coke, a bag of potato chips, some candy bars, and a large bag of animal crackers.

"I thought we'd start practicing on the next story we tell the nurses when I get you out of here," Face told him, "They won't hear us, will they?"

"Nah," Murdock shook his head, "This time of the night the staff all catches about 40 winks themselves, they won't be making the wakeup calls for about five hours."

"Alright," Face said as they settled on the floor, "Now, when I come to get you, you know what you're supposed to do?"

"Yeah," Murdock nodded, "I become a dog."

"Have you been practicing like I told you?" Face asked him.

Murdock barked a couple of times and got up on his hands and knees and scooted over towards Face and nudged his cheek against Face's sleeve and yipped.

"No no no," Face told him, "You're not supposed to be Benji, Murdock, you need to be aggressive with the orderlies, you need to bite them so they think the whole hospital could be at risk for a health hazard, can you do that?"

"Sure I can," Murdock answered as he sat on his legs, "I just treat them like they're cats and I'm…Cujo?"

"Close," Face told him, "Just don't rip anybody's throat out."

"Gotcha," Murdock said as he picked up the bag of crackers and tore it open.

Face turned to watch the door just to make sure nobody was coming in and he told Murdock, "The way I've got it figured is I'll come in and by that time, the nurses should be getting the general idea that you think you've gone rabid or something, and I'll tell them that's exactly what it is, and they…" he turned back to Murdock but stopped in midsentence when he saw the pilot was trying to shove his whole head into the cracker bag, and he asked, a bit too loudly, "Murdock, what're you doing?" He grabbed the bag and pulled it back and saw that Murdock had managed to pull out of the animal crackers out in his teeth.

Murdock swallowed the cracker and said, "I was trying to get the treats out like a dog would."

Face looked at Murdock with his eyes wide open even though it was too dark to be noticed, and he asked, "How, by eating the bag and all?"

"No, Face, don't be ridiculous," Murdock replied as he picked up another cracker and put it in his mouth, "I saw this dog that knocked a biscuit box over and just picked one up in his mouth at a time and ate the whole box that way, just one at a time, then come back for another."

"Oh yeah, is that a trick you learned from Billy?" Face asked, then kicked himself for saying because he knew that Murdock was not adapting well to the loss of the invisible dog like he did in the beginning.

"Na, Billy had better manners than that," Murdock told him, "I mean has." It was obvious he wanted to change the subject and so asked Face, "What's been going on with you and Hannibal and the big guy?"

"Not much," Face answered, "Decker's still in the area so we're trying to stay under the radar."

"Don't he have anything better to do than bother us?" Murdock asked jokingly.

Face laughed in response, "The man needs a new hobby."

"He ought to try painting, they say here that it's very therapeutic," Murdock suggested, "I don't know if there's any truth to that, but the paint tastes pretty awful if you want my opinion."

* * *

Murdock opened his eyes and saw the room was starting to get lighter and he shot up on the bed and said, "Come on Face, time to get up before they do the wakeup calls…Face?" Murdock looked around the room and realized that the conman wasn't anywhere to be seen. He jumped off the bed and went over to the bathroom and tapped on the door and called out quietly, "Face?" When he didn't get any answer he knocked again and asked, "Face, you fall in?" He turned the knob and opened the door but there wasn't anybody there either.

Finding himself alone, Murdock tried to think; had Face _really_ been here last night, or was it a dream? Or _was_ it last night, or had he been there another night? No, it had to be last night, and it had to be real, but then where was Face? He really couldn't think of any reason that Face would have to disappear in the middle of the night, unless Decker had come around again, but why would he do that, especially in the middle of the night when nobody would be up? Murdock tried to come up with an answer but he just couldn't figure it out.

Murdock heard somebody knocking at the window and he turned and went to it, but he didn't see anyone. He went over to it and opened it a crack and asked, "Who's out there?"

He heard somebody answer, "Double 3-4-2-9, gov."

It was Jean's answer, but it sounded like Face saying it. Murdock couldn't figure out how he got the password from the Saint, but he didn't really care. He opened the window and looked out, but still didn't see anyone; as he turned his head to the side to look, he felt something grab him, followed by B.A.'s grumbling voice saying, "Come on you crazy fool." And he felt himself get carried off hoisted above B.A.'s head, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Face close the window behind them and then follow after them.

Up ahead Murdock could see Hannibal standing by the van, and as B.A. put him down he asked the colonel, "Are we going on another mission, Hannibal?"

"Not yet, Captain," Hannibal replied, "But we had to get you out of there because we got something for you."

Murdock's eyes followed the direction in which Hannibal turned his head and he saw Jean walk out from behind the van and she was holding an invisible leash in her hand, and attached to the other end of the leash was…

"Billy!" Murdock's eyes lit up like birthday candles and he ran over to the dog and scooped him up in his arms, "Oh Billy, how've you been, boy? Where…" he turned to the others and asked, "How'd you get him back here, Colonel?"

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you," Hannibal said with a knowing smirk on his face, and he pointed to Jean and said, "So I'll let her do it, it was her idea anyway."

"I told Hannibal we had to go to the airport, and find a plane heading out to Holland, and when Face said he'd be spending the night with you, we knew it was the perfect time because you wouldn't be getting out and ruin the surprise before we got back," Jean explained.

"Yeah, travel 2,000 miles to find a dog in a country with 16 million people," Face added, "Go figure."

"But it turns out we didn't have to," Jean told Murdock, "Because when we _got_ to the airport, there was a jet coming in _from_ Holland, and when they opened up the cargo hold to get the luggage out, _this_ little stowaway came out and hit the ground running," she pointed to Billy.

Murdock was speechless for a minute and could only laugh in amazement. He hugged the little dog against him tightly and fussed over Billy, talking to him like a little baby for several minutes; during which Face and Hannibal watched in astonishment at just how much Murdock changed now that he had his dog back, and B.A. just stood by the van and shook his head in disbelief. Murdock put Billy down and grabbed Face and then Hannibal, hugging them and thanking them for bringing Billy back, then he went over to B.A. and did the same thing, B.A. just scowled and told him, "Get off of me, man."

Murdock made his way around to Jean and he picked up Billy again and said, "Come on, Saint, come over and pet him."

"Forget it, Murdock," Jean said as she inched back away from him, "It's bad enough I had to be the one to keep him from running away, you know I don't like dogs, and that goes for Billy too."

"Aw come on, Saint, he won't bite you, he's a good dog."

"I have news for you, Murdock," Jean told him, "Every dog that's ever bitten someone was always a 'good dog'."

Face watched this and then turned to Hannibal and asked him, "Do you think it's possible for two people to share the same kind of insanity?"

Hannibal seemed to consider the idea, "The way two people could possibly have the same glasses prescription? I suppose it is."

"What do you think that means?" Face wanted to know.

Hannibal looked at Murdock and Jean and told Face, "I think if it is possible, those two would have to be the luckiest people in the world. It's not everyday you find someone who shares the same delusions you do." He got between Murdock and Jean and said, "I hate to break this up, but the sun's going to be up soon and when it does we're going to be very noticeable standing around here, so let's get out of here."

"Where're we going, Hannibal?" Murdock asked.

"Who cares? We're getting out of _here_ ain't we?" Jean replied.

"It just so happens," Hannibal told them, "That today the studio is having a private screening of the latest Aquamaniac movie, and I managed to get you all invited to see it."

"Already?" Face asked, "I thought you just started shooting two months ago."

Hannibal turned to him and explained, "That's what the screening's for, to see if anything needs to be taken out or put in, but in the meantime there's no reason why we can't enjoy the progress made on it so far."

"When is the screening?" Jean asked.

"Nine o' clock," Hannibal answered.

Jean grabbed Face's wrist to look at his watch and said, "That's four hours away, what're we going to do in the meantime?"

"I'd suggest finding a diner open early and get breakfast," Face suggested, "I'm hungry."

* * *

"Well I don't know," Hannibal said once the screening let out and they found a restaurant for lunch, "I thought that my emergence from the water looked fine."

"Yeah, sure, Hannibal," Murdock said as they filed in to the main dining room and found a table, "Nobody makes a graceful exit from the depths of Lake Runamuck than you do."

"Maybe it's just me," Jean commented as they sat down, "But I never got the appeal in those movies. What number is this one anyway?"

"I think it's the 14th," Hannibal answered, "Incidentally, Jean, I was talking to our director about maybe getting a part for you in the _next_ movie."

"Another one?" she asked in disbelief.

"He's very optimistic about the franchise," Hannibal explained, "Anyway, I'm sorry to report he says we don't have any use for any stuntwomen, and you'll forgive me for saying so but you just aren't what they're looking for in an extra either."

"No kidding," Jean raised a hand to feel through the mohawk she still wore, "Odds are the next job I get _won't_ include a helmet so I might have to get the rest of this cut off."

"What?" Murdock practically shot up from the table.

"Come on, Murdock, when was the last time you saw somebody in a movie that looks like a rooster?" she asked, "And I _would_ like to get to the _front_ of the line someday instead of just being a human crash test dummy for the camera."

"Well…" Face started to say something but got cut off when Jean told him to shut up, he looked at her with offense written all over his face as he pointed out, "I didn't say anything!"

"Well you were about to, and nothing good ever comes out of your mouth," Jean told him.

"Oh yeah?" Face replied, but got cut off again when Hannibal reached out and grabbed both of them and came close to knocking their heads together.

"That's enough static out of both of you," he told them, "We are _not_ the Tuttles in this place."

"Whatever you say, Grandpa," Face responded as Hannibal let go of the neck of his jacket.

Halfway through the meal, Face happened to look up from the table and he caught sight of several men coming in through the restaurant's front and it looked all too familiar for him.

"Uh-oh," he said as he slumped back in his chair, "Hannibal, do you see what I see?"

The others turned to look his way and Hannibal noted, "MPs."

"Meaning Decker's right behind them, right?" Jean asked.

"Unless Lynch found a way to get his old position back," Hannibal said as an explanation, he turned to their sergeant and told him, "B.A., get her out of here."

"Hey now wait a minute," Jean started to say, but she was cut off as her chair was pulled back and B.A. grabbed her and pulled her off towards the kitchen. Jean tried to break away from him but all that did was make B.A. switch tactics and he bent over and lifted Jean over his head and carried her off towards the back exit.

If they'd been a minute sooner he could've made it because it was at that moment that Decker stepped into the main dining hall and announced that nobody was to go anywhere because they were looking for three fugitives. B.A. was close enough to the back he figured he could get Jean out before anybody spotted them, he turned around to go full speed ahead, but as he did, Jean caught a glimpse of another MP that was coming out from the back and as best as she could in her current position of being hauled out over B.A.'s shoulder, she swung her feet out and kicked like a mule and nailed the MP in the head and knocked him out.

Meanwhile, Hannibal, Face and Murdock had dropped under the table before Decker had a chance to see them and they quickly conferred about what Hannibal's plan was.

"We make our way to the back and follow B.A.," he explained, "They're going to try and block us so just be ready for a fight."

"_A_ fight?" Face repeated sarcastically, "This is going to be the final showdown, I can just feel it."

"Come on, Facey, this is no time to lose hope," Murdock told him, "They haven't caught us before, they ain't gonna do it now."

Hannibal hiked up the floor length tablecloth an inch to look out and he said, "We gotta move, they're starting to come this way, let's go."

They crawled out from under the table and managed to get five feet away before somebody spotted them and they jumped to their feet and took off running.

"Freeze, Smith!" Decker yelled loud enough that he didn't need a bullhorn for anyone in the building to hear him.

Hannibal didn't stop but he did slow down long enough to grab a large metal bowl off a cart and he hurled it back towards Decker like it was a Frisbee, and though Decker was fast he couldn't duck it in time and it hit him in the face. The distraction was enough for Murdock to get out the back way before anybody could see him but Face was a few seconds too late to join him because when he reached the entrance to the kitchen it was already blocked by MPs. He raised his arms and said jokingly to cover his nervousness, "Members only, eh? Okay…" he slowly backed away from them and back to the middle of the room where Hannibal had been put in a similar position.

Decker stood a few feet away from Hannibal, his scowl never left him but on this of all occasions, he seemed to be grinning just the tiniest bit at what he seemed to have accomplished. "Smith, it all ends here, I can't say it hasn't been amusing, but the fun's over."

"I'll say, Decker," Hannibal replied, "You always did know how to ruin a good time."

The explosion that occurred a split second later was the last thing Hannibal heard for about a minute; he ducked down just as he saw the front door blown open by machine gunfire and decided to take a hint. Everybody was scrambling now but along the way a few MPs went down and stayed there; Decker turned around to see what the hell was going on, but he was blindsided as something was draped over his head, which Hannibal and Face saw was a jacket and Jean had wrapped it tight around his head so he couldn't see anything as she put him in a headlock and then kicked him.

"Get out of here!" Hannibal told her as he drew a gun and started opening fire, not aiming for anybody, just breaking anything fragile in the room to make plenty of noise and get the message across, for anyone who didn't belong in this mess to get the hell out of there.

But Jean wouldn't leave, she grabbed Decker and threw him against a wall and waited until he fell down and wasn't moving before she removed the jacket from his face; she was satisfied with her work as he was out like a light. In the meantime that only left the MPs to deal with, and unfortunately there were plenty more of them where Decker had come from. One of them tried to grab her and she ducked out of the way and grabbed a plate off of an abandoned table and shoved part of a lemon cream pie into the man's face.

"Now that's what we were missing here," Hannibal said, "A food fight." He looked around quickly and saw what they needed, "The dessert cart, come on."

They scrambled over to the cart and dropped down just as the MPs started firing at them. Hannibal swiped a cake with yellow frosting off the lower shelf and threw it at the MP nearest him and hit him square in the face. Face picked up a cherry pie and about hurled it at another MP when Jean stopped him and asked, "What do you think you're doing?" She took the cherry pie and gave him a cream one and told him, "Use this, it'll make a bigger mess."

"What happened to B.A. and Murdock?" Hannibal asked her.

"They're out back waiting for us," Jean answered, "Murdock took the liberty to flatten their tires the automatic way."

"Alright, we might as well make this count," Hannibal said, "Everybody ready? Go!"

They jumped up, each with two plates in hand and they picked the targets nearest them and struck. Face shoved a chocolate cake into one MP's face and the plate stuck to it; giving him a chance to get in another round and he grabbed the man and kicked him and sent him to the floor. Then he turned on his heel and rammed something with raspberry filling in another's face and then punched him in the face and knocked him out. Hannibal threw a cherry cheesecake at another MP and missed his face but covered the man's jacket in it and then hit him with the heavy dish it had been in; then he spun and tossed a strawberry shortcake at another MP and whipped cream and strawberries smeared the top of his head as it passed right by him. Hannibal solved that little dilemma by picking up a metal tray and hitting him in the face with it, that did the trick and sent the MP right to dreamland. He turned and saw Face break a chair over another MP's head and knock him to the floor.

"What do you think you're doing, Lieutenant?" Hannibal asked, and when Face couldn't come up with an answer because he didn't see what the problem was, Hannibal told him, "That's number 21, we don't do that anymore, now we do number 46." And he picked up a seltzer bottle from the bar and sprayed it in the MP's face.

Jean had apparently learned one of the most important tricks of Hollywood greatness early on, pies were never _thrown_ during a fight, they were _shoved_ into some poor sucker's face, one chocolate pie in one's face and one very messy triple berry pie in another's. When the plate fell off the first man's face, Jean raised her arm and jammed her elbow into his face and busted his nose. Then while the second man was wiping the berry filling from his face, Jean knocked his helmet off his head and then grabbed a glass seltzer bottle off another table and broke it over his head and knocked him down. Then Jean picked up one large shard of the broken glass and held it carefully like the blade of a knife and raised it up to stab the MP in the chest with, but she felt something grab her arm and hold her back.

"Oh no you don't," Hannibal told her as he got her to drop the shard of glass, "Come on, we're getting out of here."

He took one side of her, Face took the other and they ran towards the back exit, and almost knocked down Murdock who had just gotten back in to find out what was the holdup. Instead, the four of them made one tight exit through the back door side by side by side by side, Murdock being slightly choked as he had both Face and Jean's arms wrapped around his neck so he kept up with them. They got to the van and sped away before anybody could come out and spot them or where they were going.

"Another typical lunch date in Hollywood," Hannibal said nonchalantly as he took out a cigar and lit it.

"How did Decker find out where we were?" Face wanted to know.

"I don't know but maybe you guys ought to consider getting out of Dodge for a while," Jean told them, "If nobody's hiring right now, then go on a long distance vacation, someplace Decker wouldn't think to look for you."

"Decker would find a way to squeeze himself through a mouse hole if he thought we'd gone the same direction," Hannibal told her.

"So now what do we do, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.

Hannibal looked to the three people in the backseat and said, "I think we have a new problem, now Decker didn't see Jean in the restaurant but probably half of the MPs did, however, everything happened so fast it's possible they didn't get a very good look at her. All the same, they may come out to your house to speak with you," he told her.

"So let them come, I'll deny everything," Jean said.

"B.A.," Hannibal turned to the driver, "Take us to her place, we're going to anticipate Decker's arrival and I've got a plan for how to deal with him."

Ordinarily Face would've taken one look at that psychologically intimidating grin on Hannibal's face that he knew only too well as being 'not even a real smile', but even he was curious to see just what their colonel had in mind for Decker.

"I have a feeling that for once I'm going to like this idea," he said.

"Well there's a first time for everything," Murdock told him.


	12. Chapter 12

Nobody had followed them to Jean's house and they spent the afternoon getting settled back into the place and back into the guestrooms. Night came and Decker still hadn't shown up, so everybody was willing to believe that maybe Hannibal had been wrong, even he had admitted it, a rarity for him. Still, it didn't mean nobody would ever come, but he didn't buy that Decker would be smart enough to ambush them in the middle of the night so everybody was willing to let their guards down long enough to get some sleep.

That turned out to be easier said than done however. Murdock kept tossing and turning in the double bed he was sharing with Face and just couldn't get comfortable. Face on the other hand was as unconscious as a person could be and still be alive; all the pilot's flipping and flopping around like a fish out of water didn't disturb his slumber one bit. After a while Murdock was ready to give up on trying to sleep, and he realized he wasn't the only one having a problem tonight. The walls in the house weren't particularly thin but he could hear Jean pacing around in her room next door; Murdock made sure that Face didn't wake up as he shifted his weight off the mattress, and decided to see what her major malfunction was tonight.

Always the gentleman, or a facsimile thereof, Murdock stopped at the door and listened in, to make sure he wasn't walking in at a bad time. He couldn't hear anything other than Jean walking around the room, it sounded like she was following the edge of the floor straight around the length of the four walls. He stepped back from the door and lightly rapped on it a couple of times and called out quietly, "Saint, you okay?"

He heard Jean walk over to the door and it opened up and he saw she hadn't even been to bed yet.

"Sorry, Murdock, did I wake you?" she asked.

"No," he answered, "I can't sleep either, but why can't _you_?"

Jean sighed and opened the door wider and said, "Suppose you might as well come in."

He did, and she closed the door behind him. Murdock realized that there weren't any lights on in the room, though he was able to see well enough in the dark to make out where the main furniture was and he followed Jean over to the bed and they both sat down on the edge.

She looked at him and asked, "Murdock, do you ever wonder about your sanity? Do you ever worry about _actually_ going crazy?"

"I _am_ crazy, Saint," he answered, "Everybody knows that."

She shook her head, "You know what I mean, Murdock."

He had a good idea of it anyway, he asked her, "What's wrong?"

Even in the dark she wouldn't look at him and she said, "I suppose Face told you what happened in the restaurant today after you'd come out and I went back in."

"He told me I missed one hell of a food fight," Murdock told her, "Why?"

She looked up again and saw him as she told him about trying to stab the MP with the broken piece of a glass bottle. "I didn't even know this guy and I could've killed him, Murdock, I _wanted_ to so badly and I don't even know why…if I would've killed anybody it _should've_ been Decker, he's the cause of all this trouble."

"That won't do any good," Murdock shook his head, "If Decker dies, somebody else will just be sent in to replace him, and the next one would be even worse."

"I know," she responded, "But I still wanted to, it was like…" her hand clenched up into a fist like she was trying to draw blood from her own palm, "It was like Brutus, Murdock…after what happened last year I thought he was gone for good, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's possible that he could come back."

"Brutus is dead," Murdock told her, "Once he left you he had no life source anymore, and he disintegrated into the nothingness he deserves to be."

"I know that, Murdock," she said in a ragged whisper, "But I'm still worried that he may not actually be gone for good. What do you think the odds are of that, that he could come back?"

Murdock wasn't sure about the possibility of that, but he could tell that the idea had Jean worried plenty because she practically threw herself at him and threw her arms around his lower back, desperate for someone else to know what was going on as she explained, "It scares me, Murdock, I don't want to go back to that, I don't want to kill anyone again, but when I saw that guy lying on the floor and I had that piece of glass in my hand, all I could think of was how easy it would've been to just jab it into his stinking heart. I remember when I _did_ use to think like that, and I don't like it."

"Come up here," he said softly as he tugged on her sleeve. Jean pulled herself up so she was as close to his own current height as she could be. Murdock slipped an arm around her back and held her close to him and told her sympathetically, "My dear, you are finding out what the downside is of being a soldier, you can't ever become a civilian again, not totally. You spend every day with the knowledge of a whole other way of life where right and wrong don't mean the same things that they mean here in the civilian sector. And you find yourself in positions where you revert back to your old training and your old mindset, and you _do_ think of things like that, how easy it _would_ be to kill someone, how to do it in such a way nobody here would _ever_ think about it, believe me, I know."

"You too, Murdock?" she asked.

"Sometimes," he answered, "In between my intermittent memory loss and when the doctors say that I have flashbacks."

Jean allowed her head to rest on his shoulder for a minute and neither spoke for a while, until finally Jean looked up at Murdock and asked him, "Murdock, who do you think killed General Morrison?"

"Huh?" Murdock pulled back and asked her, "What brought that up?"

"Just wondering," she said, "You've had 10 years to think about it, did you ever come up with a likely suspect?"

Murdock shook his head and resumed his previous position of holding her against him with her head on his shoulder, "No, nobody knows what happened to General Morrison, he was just gone with the wind in the fire."

"Murdock," she said, quieter than their whole conversation had been, "I just thought of something, what if he's not dead?"

"What?" he pulled back again, "What're you talking about?"

"What if Morrison's _not_ dead, Murdock?" she asked as she made eye contact with him in the dark, "What if he had it all planned? What if he deliberately sent you guys in to rob the bank, and he destroyed all evidence implicating him in it and he got away and framed you guys?"

Murdock chuckled quietly and asked her, "Where'd you get a _crazy_ idea like that?"

"It's possible isn't it?" Jean asked, "They never found his body."

"It's also possible that death rays from Mars sucked him up but I wouldn't put my money on that one either," Murdock told her, "Not without some proof anyway."

* * *

The next day Jean heard someone knocking at the door and she ran down the stairs and looked out the window in the door and saw Decker and a couple other men standing on the front porch. Acting curious but nonchalant about it, she opened the door and said, "Yes?"

It had been a while since she'd seen Decker and been this close to him, in person the man put out a very intimidating presence wherever he went; still Jean managed to appear completely clueless as to what was going on as if he was anyone else who came to her door and interrupted what she was doing.

"My name is Colonel Roderick Decker of the United States Army, do you remember me?" he asked her.

She squinted and looked him up and down and answered, "I don't think so, should I?"

"Well that's not important," he told her, "We need to come in and check your home, we're looking for three fugitives."

"In this house, are you kidding me?" Jean asked him, "Nobody's here, I live alone, and I've been here all day so I know nobody sneaked in."

"You'll understand if I don't take your word for that," Decker said as he walked past her and headed into the front hall, with the two MPs following behind him.

Jean brought up the rear and slammed the door shut behind her and responded, "Not at all, feel free to come in and tear the place up why don't you? Fugitives in this house, of all the absurd…just _what_ are you expecting to find, three jail breakers handcuffed together?"

"No," Decker replied firmly, "We're searching for three men who escaped from a military prison 10 years ago."

Jean did an exaggerated double take and about fell back, "10 years ago, big priority ain't it?"

"It is with _these_ men," Decker told her as he moved left and right and checked every door he came to, and the MPs went off to the other parts of the house to do the same.

"And perhaps you'd care to explain just why in the _hell_ they'd be in _this_ house of all places," Jean said.

Decker closed the closet door and stared her down and answered, "They were spotted in a Hollywood restaurant yesterday and several witnesses described a red haired woman in the same vicinity when they made their escape."

"And you look up _every_ redhead woman in the vicinity to check them out?" she asked.

"Miss Rhodes, you work in Hollywood, don't you?" he asked dismissively.

Jean stuck her fists on her sides and cocked her head from one side to the other arrogantly and said, "That's right, I'm in stunt work, tell the world why don't you? I could use the publicity, maybe I'll finally get promoted to furniture that speaks."

"Were you at the restaurant yesterday?" he asked her.

"Which restaurant? There're 300 restaurants in Hollywood," Jean told him, "And to answer, _yes_ I was at one, until I broke a tooth on a chicken bone and had to find a dentist to do an emergency bond job, you want to see it?" she opened her mouth and poked an eyetooth.

"That won't be necessary," Decker assured her, then his gaze moved downwards and he looked at the jacket she was wearing.

Jean folded her arms against her chest and said, "If you don't pick them eyeballs up, Colonel, they're going to be hanging loose in a minute, I don't care if you _are_ Army or not, or maybe _were_ is the better term. 10 years ago that would've been _your_ timeline too, wouldn't it?" She snickered and added, "Getting a little old to be chasing runaways, ain't you?"

"Were you in the army, Rhodes?" he asked her.

"No," she answered.

Decker grabbed her by the cuff of the sleeve and pushed her arm back and saw the medals on the jacket, "Where did you get those medals from then?"

"Costume junk shop in Hollywood," Jean answered as she refolded her arms, "Why? You want to get some?"

Decker moved her arm again and examined the four medals, "An Air Medal, a United Nations Korean Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, and a Purple Heart." He looked up at her face again and commented, "They look real to me."

Jean hawed and told him, "Of course they do, don't you know anything about the business of Hollywood? Everything has to look real or the public won't buy it. Do you know how many times some joker steals a studio cop car to go around playing policeman in? And how many people buy it before he gets caught?"

Decker was not amused nor did he seem to be buying it, he closed in on Jean until his face was practically smashed into hers and asked her, "Would you mind coming with us to answer some questions?"

"Oh I don't particularly _mind_, Mr. Decker," she replied smugly, "But it's going to cost you overtime because I'm on the clock, and I'm a union man and I work 24 hours a day."

Without realizing the obvious to state, Decker told her in an almost automatic response, "A union man only works 8 hours a day."

Jean stood up on the tips of the toes on one foot so she could look him square in the eye as she told him point blank, "I belong to 3 unions."

Decker never cracked but he glared at her as if she was inconveniencing him. Then he decided she wasn't worth the trouble and told her, "We have some pictures of these men, I want you to tell me if you've ever seen any of them."

Decker handed her three large black and white photographs, the top one was Hannibal.

"Oh yeah this guy looks familiar," Jean said.

"Good, where?" Decker asked.

"Oh from that movie with Audrey Hepburn," Jean answered, "What's that guy's name?"

"This man's name is John 'Hannibal' Smith," Decker told her.

"No no no, that's not it, I'll think of it," she said.

Decker showed her the next picture of Face and told her, "This man is Templeton Peck."

Jean snorted at the picture and remarked, "Boy now there's an ugly one, isn't he?"

And then she was shown the picture of B.A. and said, "Now there's a guy you'd remember seeing…he certainly is _fat_ isn't he? You said these men escaped from a military prison?"

"Right out of the stockade," Decker said matter-of-factly.

Jean looked down at the picture again and said, "Well, this one's too fat to slip down a rat hole, but maybe he chewed through the wall."

"Do you mean to say you've never seen any of these men before?" he asked her.

"Look, Mr. Decker," Jean said in a dismissive tone.

"Colonel Decker," he reminded her.

"You are an uninvited guest who barged into my house, I'll call you whatever the hell I want and you're lucky I'm showing you as much respect as I am," Jean told him, "Do you have any idea how many thousands of people I see every day in this city? You expect me to remember 3 faces in an ongoing parading crowd of freaks? That is the fruitiest thing I've ever heard and believe me living in California I've heard a lot of it. Now if I were you," she took a step towards him, "I would get out of here before I call the police and have you arrested for criminal trespass and harassment." She took another step towards him and surprisingly Decker took one step back, Jean got up on her toes and was practically in his face as she summed it up, "Do-I-make-myself-clear?"

Decker saw the MPs come back empty handed and shaking their heads and he said, "We'll leave now, Miss Rhodes, but I would advise you not to leave town, I may call on you again if I see a need to."

"You do, Decker, and I'll sue you for harassment, my lawyer can beat up your lawyer any day of the week," Jean told him as she showed the men to the door and practically booted them out, "Goodbye Mr. Decker, and don't think it hasn't been fun, because it hasn't!"

She slammed the door behind them, locked it and laughed as soon as they were out to their cars; a minute after they pulled out of her driveway and left, Hannibal, Face and Murdock came down the stairs, all grinning from ear to ear. Murdock's grin though was concealed due to the fact that he had his face hidden behind the movie camera he had resumed filming with.

"That was terrific, just brilliant!" he told Jean, "The camera loved it, no retakes!"

"I told you it would work," Hannibal said to her, "You were great, kid."

"Thanks, Hannibal," she replied, "I hope it was convincing enough."

"Ugly!" was the first and only word out of Face's mouth, he looked at Jean with wide unbelieving eyes and said, "You called me ugly!"

"It worked, didn't it?" Jean asked him, "If Decker knows you guys as well as he thinks he does, then he knows you're a man of vanity and anybody who knows that would've expected you to bust out then and there screaming about it, so that further proved that you _weren't_ here, besides, it was Hannibal's idea."

Face looked at Hannibal with a shocked expression like a fish that had just been yanked out of his tank.

"Murdock, go get B.A. and tell him the coast is clear," Hannibal said.

"How did you know they wouldn't find you?" Jean asked, "That was a damn stupid risk to take, Hannibal."

"Hannibal knows what he's doing," Face assured her, "He could fit under his cot and convince the guard that he'd escaped from his cell, what he did this time was not beyond his area of expertise."

"I still think you guys would be better off getting out of here for a while," Jean said, "Decker seems pretty persistent."

"I told you before," Hannibal said, "He _knows_ he's never going to catch us, but he lives for the chase so he must have that much. Besides, as you pointed out, you're virtually in the middle of nowhere, and since Decker was already here, and had a disappointing turnout at that, it's unlikely he'll come back _here_, so if we just stay low in your place for a few days, we should do just fine."

Jean couldn't help smiling at him and she said, "I'm always glad to have the company," and she did something that shocked Hannibal, she hugged him.

Wide-eyed, Hannibal hung onto his cigar with one hand and patted Jean on the back with the other and replied, a bit startled by her action, "Don't mention it, kid."

* * *

That night after dinner, Jean found B.A. in the living room and asked him if he could switch with Face and Murdock and sleep in their room and they would take his downstairs.

"How come?" he wanted to know.

"Because now that Murdock has Billy back, he insists on letting him sleep in the bed with him, and I don't want that dog up on the second floor coming into my room in the middle of the night," she explained.

B.A. was starting to get the idea that he was the meat stuck in the middle of a crazy sandwich, but he was a guest and he wasn't going to argue with Jean, so he told her that he would switch with Faceman and the crazy fool.

"Oh thanks, B.A., you don't know how much I appreciate this," she told him.

He didn't say anything but later in the night he took his stuff and went upstairs while Murdock and Face brought their stuff downstairs and dumped it in that guestroom instead.

"Hey Saint," Murdock called out from the bedroom, "Does the noise down here travel much upstairs?"

"That depends," she answered, "But unless you plan to bay at the moon, I don't think Hannibal and B.A. will be losing any sleep over what goes on down here tonight."

"Perfect," Murdock came out of the guestroom wearing a black and white striped referee's shirt and was holding a spoon in his hand.

"Murdock," Jean laughed, "What are you doing now?"

Murdock raised the spoon to his lips and broadcasted into it like it was a microphone, "This is Howling Mad Murdock coming to you tonight from the Spleen Auditorium where in a few minutes two of the prized middleweight fighters of the country are going to go head to head and toe to toe in a knock down, drag out, battle royale."

Jean looked at him inquisitively and said, "You want me to beat up Face? Okay, I can do that."

"Ha-ha…ha," Face dryly remarked as he came out of the guest room and entered the living room, "Murdock had an idea that since Hannibal broke up our argument in the restaurant the other day, that we could settle the score here and now."

Jean smiled like she just swallowed a whole flock of canaries and asked, "Does the great Templeton Peck intend to hit a girl?"

"If there was one in the room I'd have something to say about it," he replied.

"Oooohhhh," Jean remarked sarcastically.

"Did you hear that, ladies and gentlemen?" Murdock said, "The two contestants have just made their opening exchanges before they get into the ring and pummel each other bloody."

"Jean," Face pointed at her, "I'm going to mop the floor with you."

Jean turned to Murdock and said, "He's been drinking, hasn't he?"

"A little," Murdock answered, "But I don't think it'll interfere with his fighting skills any."

"We'll see about that," Jean replied.

"Alright you two," Murdock got between them and practically shouted into his spoon, "In _this_ corner, weighing in at 135 pounds, the Saint, and in _this_ corner, weighing enough to go past zero on a postage scale, the great Faceman!" He put his spoon down and got right between them as he explained, "Now I want a clean fight," he alternated from looking to one and then to the other as he explained the rules, "No eye gouging, no hitting below the belt, no hitting a man when he's down, no uppercuts to the nose, no wearing white after labor day, no wearing black socks with those shorts, and stop – turn right on red, you got that?"

Face and Jean nodded and Murdock walked out from between them and let them go at each other. It was a tame fight by any standards and largely consisted of them throwing punches at each other and missing more times than not; sometime during the fight Jean grabbed Face and tried to throw him against the wall but instead they both tripped and hit the floor. Murdock went over to them and slammed the floor as he counted, "One, two, three, you're both out!"

"Oh yeah?" they asked, and they each reached up and grabbed Murdock and pulled him down with them as Face said, "Why don't you come down here and say that?"

Hannibal watched from the other room as the three of them rolled around on the floor, screaming and giggling like children and he smiled at the sight of it. He quietly stepped back and made his way to the kitchen for a glass of water as he'd originally come down for when he heard the melee in the living room. This was something that had been missing since they'd met up again. He could still see Jean a year ago, the brazened person she had become, who had lost faith in almost everything. It was a sight he never wanted to see again, he'd already seen it too many times in the army.

That was one reason why he loved Murdock, the man was unflappable, no matter what happened he was always overly optimistic about everything; he loved everything and just about everybody, and his high spirits were unbelievably contagious. Face thought Murdock was often the only one of them tuned in to reality, Hannibal believed Murdock was the only thing keeping the rest of them sane. That was why it about killed him when the pilot had to go back to the V.A., life resumed something resembling 'normalcy' for that time but it was never the same, with Murdock out of the picture there was always something key missing from their everyday life.

He and Face had discussed before if Murdock would ever _really_ get discharged, what then? Of course it wouldn't be any problem for him to stay with Face, he was always able to scam a place big enough for company; but Hannibal had also considered this, his place was nothing much and it wasn't terribly comfortable for the four of them to spend the night on a moment's notice, but there _was_ room enough for Murdock to move in, if he wanted to. That was the next thing; B.A. always looked at it as they had to put up with Murdock, but maybe the truth of the matter was that Murdock was stuck putting up with the rest of them. Would he still if he wasn't in the V.A.? If he was declared sane tomorrow and discharged, would he even want to be around the rest of them? Hannibal hoped that Murdock would, but he wouldn't bet his life on it. They were a great team, they were a family, but that didn't mean Murdock would want to spend all his free time with them if he'd actually had a choice in the matter.

He still woke up in the night flashing back to last year when Murdock and Jean had been trapped in the diner when it was firebombed. When he thought Murdock had died, Hannibal had felt himself age 50 years in two minutes; he _never_ wanted to be put through that again, for anyone on the team, he might not admit his true age but he was getting too old to take many more scares like that. And he knew Face and B.A. hadn't fared much better at that time; maybe it was just his age, maybe it was because he was their commanding officer, whatever it was, he knew there was no shaking the feeling that he was the father looking out for his three boys, that was something that had never gone away since they'd first joined together in 'Nam.

All three of them had their obvious contributions to the team; B.A. was the muscle and the mechanical genius, Face was the conman, he could get them anything they needed at a moment's notice, and Murdock was the pilot, he could fly them anywhere in anything. But each had their other strong points that were only seen below the surface; B.A. was the heart and the protector, he might not always get along with the others but he would never let anyone hurt them, that's why whenever a fight broke out, Face always called for him to help, because B.A. could take on anyone they went up against and he would mess up anyone who tried to mess with his little brother. Face liked to act like he was above certain jobs, the grunt work and the dirty jobs that went with every mission, but Hannibal knew that when it counted, Face would do anything they needed, any way that he could help them, and would do it with his full effort and not a word of complaint.

And Murdock, his position was easy to sum up but difficult to explain; with his excessive optimism and his undying spirit, he was what kept the other three going. He kept Face grounded and hanging on to his own sanity, something that was never discussed among the team but the importance of it was very obvious to Hannibal. And Murdock's undying worship of B.A. reminded the sergeant of his own humility and how he was an inspiration to others through his constant attempts to live right and to do right by others and by himself. And finally, Murdock, through his neverending cheerfulness and crackpot antics kept Hannibal young; something that he needed when he was still leading his men on missions that otherwise would be led by men much younger than himself, and for all of these reasons he was grateful beyond words to all of their involvement in the team, but especially to Murdock.

Hannibal couldn't explain what it was, and he wasn't sure he fully understood it himself, but there was something about Murdock. He was a very easy person to get along with and given enough time there was hardly anyone who didn't come to like him. It was like he had a universal language all his own that he could connect with almost anyone with; apparently he too had the calming effect to soothe the savage beast, he had proven that back in Fort Gulch with the little girl. Murdock was good with normal people and he was exceptional with people who had suffered mental or nervous breakdowns as well; maybe that was because he knew it so well himself. Hannibal never knew the extent of just what horrors Murdock himself had been exposed to in Vietnam, clearly he saw his fair share just like everyone else, but what _was_ it that finally made him lose it? Whatever it was, Hannibal thought it might've been a blessing in disguise; Murdock had walked the road himself, and he could help others through it as well.

He had proven that last year with Jean; they knew now that she had only been as spiteful to them as she was because she was desperate to get them off her case because they might be killed, something they never saw from a client, or a hostage, he had to admire that. All the same, she was a cold, hard person when they met her, who had just about given up on everything and would rip someone's throat out if she had the chance. Her own traumas had driven her to the tip of her sanity and Murdock was the only thing that kept her from teetering off the edge; if she hated the others or if it was just an act, Hannibal didn't know, then and now she seemed to be two entirely separate people, but no matter what her feelings towards the rest of them had been, she liked Murdock almost from the beginning. Of course he had that effect on a lot of people but there were some who he first put through a bout of nervousness due to the things he thought, and said, and saw.

That was the difference though, Face was right; Jean could see Murdock's dog Billy when nobody else could, that had to prove something. Maybe he was right, maybe whatever Murdock had gone through in 'Nam and what she had gone through at the training base had taken them both to the same level of traumatic overload and they both walked away with a similar end result. The difference was Murdock was not a violent person by nature, he only fought when he had to, and Jean's reaction to her ordeal had been to become unbelievably violent towards the people she found responsible. Still, it was almost eerie how well they both connected on the mental level, it was something that Murdock did not have in common with most people they encountered. Still, the fact that he could put up with people like that so well, and actually help them, that spoke volumes about how underestimated he was by most who knew him. He still saw Murdock restraining Murtaugh's daughter during her breakdown and comforting her afterwards because he was the only person in the house who she felt safe with; and he was convinced that Murdock would be great with kids and would be a great father someday, and he wanted Murdock to have that chance. He wanted all of them to have that chance, through them was the only way he was ever going to be a grandfather and he knew it.

He got his glass of water and quietly made his way back through the dining room and chanced to look in at what was occurring now; and he saw that the fight had resumed but now Face and Jean were whopping each other with throw pillows from the couch gripped in their hands. Murdock was narrating the fight as well as refereeing to what was allowed and what wasn't, when finally they both turned to him and started hitting him with the pillows instead. Murdock covered his head and screamed mutiny as they walloped him with the pillows.

"Play nice you three," Hannibal playfully warned them as he headed for the stairs to go back to bed.

* * *

Hannibal was the first one up the next morning and decided to cook breakfast for the others. He just poured the scrambled eggs into the hot skillet when Jean came into the kitchen, apparently having just woken up from where she'd spent the night on the couch.

"Why didn't you tell me you were up? I could've started breakfast," she said as she rubbed her eyes and headed over to the table.

"That's alright, I know how to cook," he told her.

"I _know_ you do, that's why _I_ offered," she replied as she sat down.

"Ha ha," Hannibal remarked, "Hey kid, I've got a question for you, you know there's always the chance that someday, Murdock is going to be discharged from the V.A., and when that happens he's going to need a place to stay."

"Yeah."

"Well if that happens, do you think you could put him up here for a while until we found something more permanent?" he asked her.

Jean's eyes widened and she seemed shocked for a second before she answered, "Yeah, sure he could stay here, all of you guys can stay here as long as you need to, you know that, Hannibal."

"I know, but Murdock's situation would be the most pressing because outside of the V.A. he doesn't have a permanent place to stay, and I'm not sure that when he had a choice he would necessarily _want_ to stay with us. And, he would be pretty safe here, Decker's already been here, I doubt he's going to want to come back anytime soon, he probably thinks there's rabies in the drinking water here."

"Sure, if he wanted to stay that's fine with me," Jean said, "But what about that woman reporter who you work with, Amy Allen? Wouldn't he be better suited to stay with her? I mean she's in Jakarta now so at least when she's gone she'd have someone to water her plants, talk to them, play cards with them, I don't know what it _is_ that Murdock does with plants but I'm sure he does something."

Hannibal grinned at that thought and replied, "I don't think that would necessarily be a good idea, you see Decker _knows_ about Amy and knows that she's assisted us on missions before."

"But she wasn't arrested for obstructing or aiding and abetting," Jean noted.

"No, because Decker can't _prove_ the reason why she always pops up in the same places as us," Hannibal said, "He _knows_, but he can't take it before a judge or he would, believe me."

"He might also _know_ that I'm involved, he just can't prove that either," Jean reminded Hannibal.

"I don't think so," he replied, "I think your performance yesterday shook him up enough that he won't be able to put two and two together on that one. By the way, I hope you're not too sore about us letting him find you here, but I figured that way he'll be able to cross you off his suspect list."

"I'm not worried about myself," she said, "If he would've found you here the other day…"

"But he didn't," Hannibal said with a self assured grin on his face, "You see it was just too perfect, we were right in front of his nose and he didn't find a thing, sort of a Purloined Letter situation, played out perfectly."

* * *

A few days later, Hannibal found out that someone else was looking to hire the A-Team, he went back to the house to get the others but found out Murdock wasn't there. Face said he and B.A. had come back to the house and found a note from Jean that Murdock had broken a tooth and they got him an emergency spot at the dentist's office.

"It doesn't say when they left, there's no telling how long they'll be," Hannibal said, "We'll have to go on without him."

"That's _fine_ with me," B.A. told Hannibal, "If Murdock ain't coming, then I _know_ we ain't flying."

"B.A. who said _anything_ about flying?" Face asked cynically.

"You ain't fooling me," B.A. told him, "Only reason we _do _bring that crazy fool along is so he can fly us somewhere."

"Now B.A. you know that's not true," Hannibal said, "And it's a good thing Murdock's not here to hear that, you'd hurt his feelings."

B.A. scoffed and said, "Man's too crazy to even know what it means, Hannibal."

Face would've thought B.A. would be in a good mood without Murdock around, but by the time they actually met their client, which was eight hours later in an abandoned warehouse, as soon as he heard their new job was going to take them back to Mexico, B.A. started going off again about he wasn't flying anywhere.

"Now calm down, B.A.," Hannibal told him, "Nobody said _anything_ about flying anywhere, there _is_ a road leading into Mexico, we just have to make sure we don't get stopped at the border, at least not without the right equipment."

"Hannibal," Face leaned over to the colonel and whispered an idea into his ear.

"Face, I think I'm starting to rub off on you," Hannibal said with a knowing smirk.

B.A. glared over at them and asked, "What is it?"

"Face suggested he could get us a bus," Hannibal said, "And we touch up the bus so it looks like a Greyhound, they run to and from Mexico all the time with few questions asked, and anything we need we just store in the cargo hold underneath." He slapped Face on the back congratulatory and saw the pleased grin on the lieutenant's face.

"Fine," B.A. said, "So long as we ain't flying."

They left the warehouse and walked out into the middle of a downpour and all three of them quickly became drenched to the bone.

"Well I don't know what Murdock's doing, but I'm sure he's glad he missed out on becoming a drowned rat," Face said as they ran to the van.

Hannibal consulted his watch and he told B.A., "We'll stop at a motel for the night and head back in the morning, we'll only wake the whole house up when we get back at this rate, and besides that I don't like the look of this storm."

B.A. nodded and pulled off at the first neon sign they found and got two rooms for the night. Even though Hannibal hadn't wanted to wake Murdock and Jean up, once in the night Face tried calling Jean's house but nobody answered. He didn't give it too much thought because in a few hours they'd be back at the house anyway. The next morning at a little after 8, they got loaded into the van and 20 minutes later were back at Jean's house, but Face noticed as they pulled in that the blue car was gone.

"I wonder where they went?" he said.

"I don't know, let's check the house and make sure nothing went on here while we were gone," Hannibal told them.

They found the front door unlocked but upon entering they searched the house from top to bottom and didn't find anything out of place, and didn't find anything that didn't belong either.

"Find anything, Face?" Hannibal asked as he walked down the hall and opened the doors and turned on the lights.

"Either Jean got up early this morning, or she never went to bed last night," Face said, "Her bed's made."

"Well it doesn't mean she didn't sleep on the couch," Hannibal told him, "How about you, B.A.?"

"Na man, there ain't nothing here that says anything happened," he answered as he came up the stairs.

A thought occurred to Face and he told Hannibal, "Maybe she took Murdock to the studio with her."

"That's a thought, we'll go down there and check," Hannibal agreed.

They went downstairs and had just gotten outside when they saw Jean's blue convertible coming up the street and pull up into the driveway. Hannibal let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he'd been holding in.

"Hey Colonel, Faceman, you guys just getting in?" Murdock asked.

"Yeah, and you?" Face asked.

They got out of the car and Jean had a flat box in one hand, "We went out and got some doughnuts for breakfast, thought it'd be a nice change from Hannibal's cooking."

"How's your tooth?" Hannibal asked Murdock.

"Huh?"

"Your tooth," Hannibal said, "We found the note about the dentist, how's your tooth, Murdock?"

"His are fine," Jean told him, "_I_ was the one that had to have all my wisdom teeth cut, yanked and drilled out."

Hannibal, Face and B.A. all absentmindedly raised their hands and wrapped them around their mouths in response to that mental image.

"Are you alright?" Face asked.

"Yeah sure," Jean said, "four hours in surgery, $500 for extractions, x-rays and nitrous oxide."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Face asked.

"You know how much laughing gas you go through in four hours?" Jean asked, "I was begging that doctor to knock me out but he wouldn't. I'm just glad Murdock was there the whole time otherwise I would've gone through the roof."

Murdock put a hand on her back supportively and replied, "She's exaggerating, she was the picture of sedation, you know, once she stopped biting the doctor."

"Well I'm sorry to rain on anybody's parade, but I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this visit short," Hannibal told Jean, "We've got another client, and we've been hired to go to Mexico and recover somebody's stolen briefcase before the thieves can crack the combination lock on it."

"How come?" Jean asked.

"Because that briefcase contains $50,000 to pay off the ransom for the guy to get his daughter back," Hannibal explained.

"When're we leaving, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"Oh we have a little time, Murdock," Hannibal assured him, "We're going to take a bus down there."

"A bus?" Jean and Murdock asked simultaneously.

"That's right," B.A. went over to Murdock and got into his face, "We' taking a bus that's gonna stay _on_ the ground, we ain't flying, you got that, fool?"

Murdock backed away nervously and twiddled his thumbs for a minute and asked Hannibal, "If I bring Billy, can he ride with me instead of going in the cargo bin?"

B.A. grabbed Murdock by the jacket and warned him, "You start talking to your invisible friends, I'ma stuff _you_ in the cargo bin, Murdock."

"Got it," Murdock replied quietly.

Author's note: If anybody still likes this story, I would appreciate hearing it.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: A big word of thanks to all the readers who reviewed the last chapter. I was thrilled to know so many people are still enjoying the story.

Face looked around the room to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anything he would need to take and he called out, "Hey Murdock, we're clearing out, are you ready yet!"

He didn't hear any answer from that part of the house so grabbed his bag and went out the door to see where the pilot was, and he heard footsteps stampeding down the stairs and saw Murdock and Jean coming down.

"Yeah, Faceman, I'm ready and raring to go," Murdock answered.

"I don't suppose you guys would need an extra set of eyes on the road?" Jean asked.

"No, I'd say it's a safe bet that we won't," Face answered.

"It was worth a shot," she said, "It's going to be kind of dull around here with you guys gone again."

"At least it gets us out of Decker's line of fire," Face told her.

"Alright team, come on, let's move it," Hannibal said as he checked his watch and carried his bag to the door.

"What's the big rush?" Jean asked as she followed them out to the van.

"Afternoon traffic is murder, and I don't imagine it's any different trying to cross the border," Hannibal said as he tossed his bag into the back.

Murdock went over to B.A. and said, "Hey B.A., you mind if I drive us out to where Faceman's taking us to get this bus?"

"What for, fool?" B.A. wanted to know.

"Oh come on, B.A., you know you'll be driving us clear into the next country once we get started, can't I drive us out there at least, please?"

"No," B.A. told him, "I don't trust you driving my van."

Murdock turned back to Jean and asked in a shocked and betrayed tone, "You told him!" He went over to her and looked like he was going to strangle her but instead he just grabbed the lapels on her jacket for show.

"Alright, that's enough," Hannibal told them, "Everybody inside."

He felt somebody tugging on the back of his jacket and he turned to see Jean who asked him, "Can I come down and see you guys off?"

"I don't see why not," he said, "Come on."

Face got in the front with B.A. and Hannibal, Murdock and Jean piled into the back. Face told B.A. where to go, and Jean checked her watch half an hour after they started on a trip on and off every bumpy road between Los Angeles and the Mexican border.

"Face, where the hell are we going?" she finally asked, "At this rate we should be halfway through Tijuana by now."

"I told you we have to go and get the bus first," he explained, "So we have to take a detour over to Riverside to get it."

B.A. managed to keep one eye on the road and with the other eye saw Face grab the rear view mirror and turn it towards him, "Hey man, whatchu doing?"

Face kept one hand on the mirror to steady it and with the other he pulled up his top lip and examined his front teeth, "I think when we get back to Los Angeles I'm going to have to see about getting this tooth fixed, I think I'm about to lose another cap."

"Man you about as crazy as Murdock, always seeing things that ain't there," B.A. told him.

Jean saw that B.A. was the big fat pot calling the kettle back, or rather that he wasn't seeing what _was_ going on; Face had moved the mirror so B.A. couldn't see behind him and see that Hannibal was preparing a syringe with his knockout juice in it. She knew that B.A. never felt these things anyway, oddly enough, still she thought it wouldn't hurt to cover their bases and she said, "Hold still, B.A., there's a mosquito on your neck, I'll get it."

Hannibal jabbed the oblivious mudsucker in the neck and when he retracted the needle, Jean smacked him in the same area and told him, "Got it."

After a few seconds B.A. started to become drowsy until he finally just passed out, Face grabbed the wheel and steered them to the right and managed to get his foot over to step on the brakes and get them stopped. "Well that went off without a hitch."

"I don't get it," Jean said, "You said you were taking a bus."

"We are," Face answered, and pointed to a large white jet over behind a large chain link fence about 500 yards away, "An _air_bus!"

Murdock turned to Jean and told her, "The man is a genius!"

"Yeah, but how did he get it?" Jean asked.

"Oh I have my ways," Face said with a smirk, "Did you ever see No Highway in the Sky?"

"Now you're _not_ going to tell me you convinced whoever the airline is that owns that jet that the tail was going to fall off when they cleared 10,000 feet are you?" Jean asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," Face replied, "I convinced them that they needed to leave it here and let the bomb squad deal with it and we would get back to them with our findings at a further notice. Of course we'll do it professionally and keep it all hush-hush so they don't get any bad publicity."

"Evil genius!" Murdock corrected his previous statement.

"But isn't flying _that_ thing into Mexico going to draw a lot of unwanted attention to you guys?" Jean asked.

"Well look at it this way," Face said as they got B.A. moved over to the passenger seat, "Who would ever suspect _us_ of making our arrival in _that_?"

They drove past the gate and over towards the plane, and stopped far enough away to keep off the landing strip.

"I guess we might as well get him onboard," Jean said as they started to get out, "I'll help you guys get him on."

"That won't be necessary," Hannibal told her, and Jean watched in shock and amaze as Hannibal managed to lift B.A. over his shoulder and carry him over his shoulder and up the stairs.

Jean elbowed Face in the ribs and asked him, "How does he do that?"

"Very carefully," he answered.

They grabbed the other stuff out of the van and carried it onboard the jet, and Jean went over to where Hannibal had gotten B.A. settled into a seat and buckled in and asked him, "Don't that give you a hernia?"

"Not if it's done right," he answered.

"But I still don't get it, why the jet?" Jean asked.

"It's like I told you before, Saint," Murdock said as he made his way down the aisles, "Nobody's going to come up behind it and demand they pull over and show their license."

Hannibal turned to Jean and told her, "We've got plenty of room on this jet, but we _don't_ have any room for passengers, so this is where you get off."

Jean nodded exaggeratedly and said, "Yeah yeah, I get it, I'm leaving, I'll see you guys whenever you get back to Los Angeles. Good luck!"

Face and Murdock waved her off and once she was off the plane and they got it closed up, Murdock went off to reach the cockpit.

"Well Hannibal, how long do you think it'll take us to get there before B.A. wakes up?" Face asked.

"Well let's see, what do these jets fly at, 500 miles an hour?" Hannibal checked his watch and told Face, "We should _just_ make it."

Face groaned as he strapped himself in, "Always gotta be on the jazz in these situations, don't you?"

* * *

Thankfully Hannibal had not described this new mission as a piece of cake, and that turned out to be exactly what it was, with very little trouble over a course of three days, they managed to recover both the ransom money and the ransomed daughter and return both to her father who was not a particularly rich man but well enough to do that he could afford their fee once the kidnappers and extortionists were blown up, tied up and delivered to the Mexico City police. Of course once they arrived there, and also once they got back, they had one more problem.

"I still don't remember driving no bus," B.A. told Hannibal and Face once they got back to Los Angeles, "And I don't remember getting sick on the way back either."

"Of course you don't, you slept the whole way," Hannibal told him, "You snored so loud the police pulled us over twice because they thought the engine was about to explode."

They had left Murdock behind with the jet to take care of those last minute details, and they were currently on their way to see Jean; even though Hannibal hadn't thought Decker would bother her again, he didn't see any harm in making sure of it, and he had called the movie studio and found out she had just finished working for the day, so he took that as meaning she should be at the house soon. It was agreed that in an hour, Face would take his 'Vette and go back and get Murdock and then they would figure out what they were doing next now that the job was over and they were paid.

"Well, here we are," Hannibal said as they pulled up to the house and saw the blue car was in the driveway.

"I still don't believe you," B.A. said as he parked the van and they got out, "Every time you say we did something and I don't remember it, that always means that we flew somewhere! I don't know how you guys' always trick me and get me on a plane, but it ain't happening again."

"Here we go again," Face said under his breath as they headed up to the porch.

Hannibal knocked on the door and they waited for Jean to answer, but B.A. wasn't finished getting his point across yet. He grabbed Hannibal by the jacket and warned him, "The next time you try getting me on a plane, Hannibal, you' gonna be sorry."

"Why B.A., whatever do you mean? Hannibal asked, doing an exaggerated job of feigning innocence.

"I'm talking about next time you try knocking me out, I'm gonna mess _you_ up," B.A. told him.

Hannibal managed to restrain his grin from breaking through, and calmly took the cigar out of his mouth and turned to see B.A. as he asked him, "Now you wouldn't be getting any ideas about punching you Colonel, would you?"

"That's right," B.A. said and Hannibal could already see his fist balling up and drawing back.

Hannibal ducked out of the way just in time to avoid getting his face bashed in, unfortunately from the corner of his eye he could see that someone else wasn't so lucky. He heard the crunch before he actually saw anything, but Hannibal turned on his heel and saw B.A.'s fist had gone through the black visor of Jean's helmet and knocked her right in the face and she fell back and hit the floor of the front hall.

When B.A. realized what he'd done he looked mortified by his own actions, Hannibal knelt down on the floor beside Jean to see how bad the damage was. The visor was broken into a hundred little pieces and covered her face, her eyes were closed which he considered to be a small miracle in their favor; he carefully lifted the helmet off of her head and cleared the broken plastic away with his hand and only once all the pieces were off her closed eyelids did Hannibal ask her, "Jean, are you alright?"

He and Face started to pull her up and had her in something close to a sitting position when she opened her eyes, and they rolled around in her head in two different directions, and she said dazedly, "Roger Huston, all systems are go," and she fell back down on the floor.

"Oh man," B.A. looked like crawling under a rock would be a preferable idea right about now.

"No wonder," Jean said weakly as she tried picking her head up, "No wonder they call you Bad Attitude," and her head dropped to the side.

* * *

Face had gone on ahead to get Murdock and bring him to the house while Hannibal played doctor and tended to the already formed and growing shiner on Jean's face.

"Are you sure you don't need to see a doctor?" he asked her as he placed a makeshift icepack over her eye.

Jean grabbed the washcloth filled with ice cubes and replied, "No thanks, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Hannibal tried turning her head so he could see the bruise better in the light.

"Yeah, no problem," Jean said, "Just have to have one new crash helmet with an anti-crack visor added to the bill for the film's budget. Meanwhile, where is the big angry mudsucker?"

"Looking for the first aid kit," Hannibal told her, "You don't know how lucky you are that he didn't break your jaw."

"With all the rings he wears, that would be the least of my worries," she replied.

She tilted her head back in response to the booming footsteps coming back from the kitchen and she saw B.A. holding a small metal box with a red cross on it, "Found it, Hannibal."

"Great, we'll see if there's anything in here we can actually use," Hannibal said as he took the kit from him.

B.A. looked down at Jean who tried smiling at him with only one eye; he moved her arm to lower the icepack and he saw the black bruise right under her eye and he growled in disappointment and brought her arm back up to cover it again.

"Hey mama, I'm real sorry I hit you."

"I know you weren't really trying to kill _me_, B.A., don't worry about it," Jean told him.

"Ordinarily I wouldn't ask this but you don't happen to have anymore of those morphine pills left, do you?" Hannibal asked her.

Jean slowly shook her head, "I got rid of them last year."

"What've you been taking for the holes in your mouth?" he asked.

"Extra strength ibuprofen, there's a bottle in the kitchen," she nodded her head back that way.

They heard a car pull up outside and Hannibal said, "That must be Face with Murdock."

Jean laughed weakly and said, "Murdock ought to get a real laugh out of this one, 10 years B.A. threatens to murder him and instead he clocks _me_!"

The door was about broken down as Murdock burst into the house and he glared at the mudsucker and screamed murderously, "B.A.!" and practically lunged at him, "How could you! What the hell is _wrong_ with you, man? Turning into Jack the Ripper, hitting little girls, why I ought to…" he got cut off at the same time his air supply did as Face pulled him back and put him in something akin to the sleeper hold.

Murdock calmed down enough in that time that Face could try to reason with him and he said, "Murdock, calm down, don't you think B.A. feels bad enough as it is? It was an accident, he was _trying_ to hit Hannibal."

"Yeah and my face just happened to get in the way," Jean told him as Hannibal helped her up.

Murdock rushed over to Jean and carefully placed his hands on the sides of her face and tried to see the bruise past the icepack and he asked her, "How bad is it? Let me see." Jean reluctantly lowered the icepack again and Murdock closed his eyes and sucked in a long breath.

"Murdock, it wasn't his fault," Jean told him as she put the ice back on it, "It was _just_ an accident." She leaned in to him and said into his ear, "Though I think it might be a good idea if I got out of his sight for a while, I'll be upstairs if you need me." She turned to Face and told him, "Come on makeup man, I have a feeling I'm going to need your expertise again."

* * *

"Well, Hannibal's right, you're lucky B.A. didn't break the bones in your face," Face told Jean as he tried to cover up her bruise with a new jar of concealer foundation, "I just still can't believe he actually hit you though."

"Yeah well, I'm kind of glad that he did," Jean remarked.

"You are?"

"How come?" Murdock asked.

Jean looked up at one and then to the other and explained, "Proves that he can…I know that it's a general rule of you guys' _not_ to hit women, but sometimes they need a good punch in the mouth too just like the men do. That would probably be the only time having a woman on the team would come in handy, you can't hit a woman but you could send another one in to do it."

"Fortunately the problem doesn't come up too often," Face told her, "Alright, see what you think of that."

Jean turned around and looked in the mirror at Face's attempt to cover the bruise with makeup and she looked back at him and said, "Not bad, you could always join Hollywood as a makeup artist. All the same though I think it would be easier on B.A. if he didn't see my ugly puss for the rest of the day, by tomorrow there ought to be _some_ improvement."

"That mean we're stuck eating Hannibal's cooking again?" Murdock asked.

"Sorry," she shrugged.

"Well we can manage fine but what're you going to do for the rest of the day?" Face asked.

"I'll just stay up here and out of everybody's way, you can pretend this is some new place you scammed for the day and do what you'd normally do," Jean said as she threw herself on the bed.

Face looked at Murdock and signaled toward the door, Murdock nodded and followed him out into the hall, "Yeah Facey?"

"Maybe it _would_ be a good idea if she stayed away from B.A. for a while, I'm sure he's beating himself up over this whole thing, but…"

Murdock caught on and nodded, "I'll stay with her."

"Thanks," Face said, he didn't know whether to be more relieved that _he_ didn't have to stay with Jean, or that _she_ could keep an eye on Murdock and keep him from trying to explode at B.A. again. He guessed it was only to be expected, none of them ever hit a woman, and for B.A., the biggest and the strongest of them all, to not only hit a woman but to knock her flat and give her a black eye, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he wasn't sure he'd be able to believe it either.

Once Face was gone, Murdock closed the door and sat down on the bed by Jean and asked her, "So how bad is it?"

"Imagine getting hit in the face by a 2 ton steam shovel," Jean answered, "First time in a year I wish I _did_ have those Hydromorphone pills, but I suppose that's just the lingering shadow of withdrawal, anything that can draw me back to them and all that. And this is where I get to prove I'm stronger than the temptation and all of that crap I suppose."

Murdock didn't say anything at first, it was obvious that he was not judgmental on this case one way or the other, finally he said to her, "Everybody falls off the wagon, it happens."

"Yeah well not me," Jean told him as she folded her arms tightly and moved away from him, "I threw away those pills after I left the hospital, I never got another batch…right now I wish I had one of them more than anything…you wouldn't understand how humiliating this is, I can win against death but not against addiction."

"Well…I wouldn't say that," he replied.

Jean turned back to him and eyed him suspiciously before she said, "You don't take pills, Murdock, I know that."

"Not now," he agreed and moved over towards her, "But when I was first put in the V.A., before I learned how to slip them under my tongue and get rid of them later, I did for a while." Jean turned and looked at him with a stunned expression on her face as he continued, "Trust me, it was _not_ a good time when I first went in there, I tried to escape and it didn't work and all I had to show for it was a bunch of bruises and cuts. I told Hannibal that there are a lot of guys in the V.A. on the exact same pills that you were taking…"

"And you were one of them," she realized.

"In the beginning," Murdock explained, "Before, before everything, before Faceman came to get me out, before I knew I would be with them again, that I would be able to fly again, once that happened I knew...that's when I quit taking them."

"But you don't take them now either," Jean said.

"No but…I've had a lot longer than you have to get over the withdrawal…you've done it for one year, that's great, in ten you'll wonder why you even swallowed them in the first place, believe me. You just gotta look ahead at the big picture, like me, I knew that my team was counting on me to be at the top of my game, they needed me to man the planes, you know they can't do that, and getting in them and taking to the skies again…now _that_ is an addiction I'm fine with."

"Well tell me something, Murdock, do you think the pills you _did_ take ever contributed to…anything that you did or the way you did it?"

"You mean like long term damage?" Murdock shook his head, "Naw, I didn't take them long enough for that…and I know you didn't either."

"How could you know that?"

"I _know_, I live with 100 people that take pills every day, every hour, believe me _I_ know," he assured her, "I could tell you weren't a hard user, but I have always wondered, why _were_ you taking them?"

Jean shrugged pitifully and said, "It _wasn't_ because I'd injured myself, ironic now isn't it? I was like you, I always had to stay on top, there wasn't any room to make any mistakes, I couldn't lose control, I couldn't get drunk and I couldn't lose myself to the hard stuff from the streets…but numbing myself, inside or outside, it sounded like a good idea, it never worked though. I'd say I responded fairly well to the pills but, it was more of a habit to take them than any actual need," she snorted, "Some habit, I think I averaged one every week, hard to believe I could miss them so much now."

"You're not," Murdock assured her, "It's all an illusion, that's something I figured out the hard way," he put his hand on the back of her head and said, "See the brain gets fooled by those drugs and it sends out alerts through the rest of the body that you need another dose, it's trying to convince you that you _do_ need it when you really don't, now _this_," he tapped the top of her head, "Is not connected to that," he reached around and tapped her over her heart, "_You_ know you don't need it, but you've got to convince the rest of yourself that you don't. It ain't always easy, but it's doable, you've just got to be smarter than your own brain."

Jean laughed and asked him, "How long did it take you to come up with that?"

"Oh you'd be surprised what I do to amuse myself once it's lights out at the hospital," he answered, "Did it help any?"

"I suppose so," she said, "Though I'll tell you something, this black eye might not be such a bad thing after all."

"How do you figure that?" he asked.

"Suppose Decker tries coming around here and asking questions again," Jean said, "If I can work it so he and I are alone in a room together I could put on a performance to end them all, picture this," Jean stood up and started throwing punches and full armed backhands through the air and screaming, "How-dare-you-raise-your-hand-to-a-poor-helpless-defenseless-woman?" and finished it with one good hook and told Murdock, "Decker falls out the door and into the next room, I wipe off this makeup and anybody who's in the room is going to think_ he_ did it to me."

Murdock sat up on his knees and applauded, "Brilliant, simply brilliant."

Jean went back over to the bed and sat down beside Murdock and told him, "I'm really tired, Murdock, would you mind if we just went to sleep for a while?"

"Sure, anything you want," he answered, "Probably be the best thing for your eye right now anyway."

They laid down on the bed side by side but after a moment Murdock reached over and pulled Jean over on her side so she leaned against him, and he watched for a few moments and when her head drooped to the side and he knew she was asleep, he leaned over and kissed her on her forehead, where he knew he couldn't do any damage. He pulled back and looked at her and could still see the bruise under the makeup, it was huge and considering the source of the impact it was no wonder. He knew the others were right, he knew B.A. would never do something like this on purpose, but even so he still couldn't believe it when Face had told him what happened. Well, for the next few days there was going to be plenty of proof of it.

Unfortunately it all seemed a bit too familiar; it reminded him of the time she had been beaten to a bloody pulp by the MPs Lynch had working with him last year, that was a nightmare none of them would forget. Murdock also remembered shortly before it happened, there was an argument between she and B.A. and she was goading him on to hit her, saying that it wouldn't be anything new for her. They'd never managed to find out what that meant, but Murdock didn't like it either way. The more Murdock thought about it, everything seemed to be running full circle, so many things happening now not too different from what happened the last time all of them were together; he only hoped that the outcome wasn't the same, they already had her almost die on them once, nobody, especially not Murdock, was willing to try that run a second time and see if they got the same results.

Jean opened her eyes and looked at him and she said, "Tell me something, Murdock, do you think you'd ever become one of those head doctors?"

"Why would you think that?" he asked.

"Because of all those stupid head shrinkers, you're the _only_ one who ever knows what the hell he's talking about," she answered.

* * *

Hannibal looked at the helmet Jean had worn the other day and saw the gaping hole where the visor had been, and he asked Jean, "Why _were_ you wearing this when we got here yesterday?"

"I hadn't changed out of it yet," Jean said, "With things suddenly 'disappearing' from the movie set, I decided we might as well make sure there's always _one_ suit on hand incase we need to go back and reshoot, the director thought it was a good idea, especially since I don't seem to have anything to do with things coming up missing." On that last part she turned her head and glared at Murdock who was holding the 'stolen' camera in his hand.

"I resent that insinuation," he told her, "I am innocent until proven guilty."

Face managed to keep from laughing as he told the pilot, "Murdock, it doesn't look good if you're caught _holding_ the evidence."

Jean reached over and tugged on Murdock's jacket and asked him, "How's the movie coming anyway, Hitchcock?"

"Ah not so good," Murdock replied as he sat down beside her on the couch, "I mean we've got everything typical for a good movie, we've got a great lead, a pretty girl," he looked to Face who was not amused by that remark, "And great scenery, but these days is that still enough to make a hit?"

"You know what you ought to do," Jean told him, "Do what all great directors do, you take a foreign movie, steal it and Americanize it, like that Italian movie Stunt Squad from the 70s, remember that one?"

"I think I saw it once," Hannibal said, "Either that or somebody spiked my drink that night."

"You ought to do something like that and make an American version of it," Jean suggested, "Combat trained vigilantes riding motorcycles all through the city chasing after getaway cars and beating the pushers into a bloody pulp."

"Good idea," Face replied, "Except _where_ would you find the people for the squad?" When he saw Jean and Murdock staring at him he backed up and told them, "Uh-uh, no way, forget it."

Even Hannibal had a good chuckle at the lieutenant's expense. "Come on, Face, it couldn't be worse than being the wife could it?"

"I wouldn't put money on that one," Face said.

"Hey, I know what you need to do," Jean told Murdock, "We gotta get a chopper and get some air footage for the movie."

Murdock's eyes lit up, "That's a great idea! Face…"

Face opened his mouth to respond but Jean cut him off saying, "It's a perfect idea, Murdock's already passed for a stunt pilot once, we've got a movie camera, who wouldn't believe it? Besides, look at him," she nodded to Murdock, "I think a flight would do him some good."

Face looked at Murdock and almost laughed at his eager puppy dog eyes and the way he panted excitedly.

"I suppose so," Face gave in, "How could I ever say no to a face like that?"

Murdock handed the camera to Jean and jumped over the end of the couch to hug Face and told him, "Thanks, Facey! This is going to be great, you'll see."

"Yeah, he'll fly, I'll run the camera," Jean said.

"And what do I do?" Face wanted to know.

"What you do best," Jean told him, "Sit around looking 'purty."

In response to that, Face just bared his teeth at her and growled.

* * *

"This is Chopper One, Chopper Two come back how bout it?" Murdock asked shortly after he got the Huey in the air and going up, up and away with Face and Jean in tow beside him.

"Have to admit this is one hell of a view," Jean said as she looked through the camera at the land down below in all its inactive glory. She turned in her seat and saw Face and noted, "You're looking a little paler than usual today."

"I feel like it too," he replied.

"Incidentally are _you_ afraid to fly?" Jean asked.

"Not usually," Face answered, "And you?"

"As long as I'm _inside_ the chopper it's fine," Jean told him, "Now _heights_ are my problem."

"They _what_?" Face turned to her, "You mean to say you're not scared of flying but you're scared of _heights_?"

"Yes," she answered smugly, "I'm funny like that. Being up this high in a plane isn't any problem, but being 100 floors up in a building, hell, 20 floors up, no thanks."

"And why is that?" Face asked.

"Because I don't trust elevators and I have a silly aversion to falling down stairs, so in an emergency that only leaves one other alternative, right out the window," she answered, "And straight down till the sudden stop."

"Oh brother," Face moaned to himself.

Jean leaned out the open door on her side and looked down below and told Murdock, "Take us down a bit, I think I recognize this place."

"Roger and Wilco, over and out," Murdock said as he moved the controls to a different angle.

Face tried to see what Jean was seeing and all he did see was a lot of green land, a lot of trees, and one old looking shack of a house down below, "Recognize it from where?"

"A while back," Jean explained, "I tried to audition for a part for a new zombie movie the studio's doing, didn't get it of course, they suggested I come back for one of the zombie extras but I wasn't interested in that. That's the house where they've been filming it."

"No kidding," Face said, "Why there?"

"Same old story, this was a family homestead about 20 years ago, but nobody wants it anymore and they're going to torch this place in a few weeks so it doesn't matter if it gets destroyed during the shoot or not," Jean told him, "Being a real house instead of a lot set, it gives the film a sense of realism."

"Realism in a zombie movie?" Face asked, "Isn't that an oxymoron?"

Jean ignored him and told Murdock to land the copter, "They're done filming here so we can go in and see the place before it's destroyed."

Murdock brought them in for a nice landing in the tall grass that spread out for probably a mile past the house. Upon stepping out, Face commented, "This place could use a gardener, or Tarzan, or a flamethrower, or something."

They treaded through the grass and went up to the front door and let themselves in. The house was dark but Face found out the electricity was still on for the time being. It was a small place with old furniture and paper peeling off the walls and holes worn into the carpets; there was a small refrigerator in the kitchen that had been emptied a while back save for the box of baking soda, a pack of batteries and a couple of old candy bars.

"This place is actually pretty clean for being such a dump," Murdock noted as he looked around the room.

"Yeah, it's too bad they're burning it down, we _could_ use this place as a hideout if we _had_ to," Face was willing to agree, "We _have_ done worse."

"Now _that's_ a scary thought," Jean commented.

They checked the upstairs and saw that there were three bedrooms, also with very little room and even less furniture, but it was doable if it had to be, though everybody was hoping it didn't. After checking out the bedrooms, the bathroom and the small attic, the three of them headed back downstairs and as they made a second round through the house to see everything, Jean heard something from outside. Murdock and Face didn't seem to hear it though, so she left them alone and instead went around to the other side of the house where the noise seemed to have come from. She looked out a window that was half covered in dirt and she saw a jeep outside and quietly making his way through the three feet tall grass was Colonel Decker.

She couldn't even begin to figure out how he happened to find them, and so quickly, but she decided to beat him to the punch before he found out far more than was already for his own good. Without a word to the men, she slipped the window open and slipped herself out and quietly crept up behind Decker and he didn't notice her. She saw him stop at the front door and he listened to the conversation going on inside; he quietly opened the door and slipped in, and Jean crept in right behind him, and just as Decker was about to turn the corner into the next room and find Face and Murdock, she took a gun out from the waistband of her jeans and she cracked Decker in the back of the head with it. The noise of metal hitting against his skull was drowned out by the moan that escaped him, followed by the slump of his body hitting the floor.

Face and Murdock heard the noise and came out of the room and neither could believe what they saw.

"Decker!" Murdock exclaimed in disbelief, "What's he doing here?"

Face looked at Jean and asked her, "What did you do?"

"Stopped him from catching you two, that's what," she told him, "He was creeping around outside, his jeep's out there, again."

"Is there anyone _else_ out there?" Face asked and went to the window to look.

"No, Decker apparently got the nerve to come out here by himself," she said.

"Must be eating his Wheaties," Murdock commented.

"_Why_ is he here?" Face asked, "How could he possibly have known where we were?"

"I don't…" Jean looked like the answer just hit her over the head, "How hard do you think it would be to put a tracking device on a great big Huey copter so nobody who wasn't looking for one couldn't find it?"

Face and Murdock looked at each other and Murdock said, "I'll go check it out."

"Fine, you do that and Face and I'll decide what to do with Mary Sunshine here," Jean said as she gazed down at the unconscious form of Decker laying on the floor, "How the hell could he have found us out?"

"It makes sense," Face told her, "He knows Hannibal works in the movies, he knows that we need a pilot, he probably had little trouble finding out about the Vietnam movie and put two and two together, and he probably had all the copters bugged to see if any of them went off course."

"He came here alone but the MPs will probably be on the way soon," Jean said as she knelt down and patted Decker down to see what he was carrying. She pulled one gun, two knives and a walkie-talkie off of him, she raised her gun and shot the radio; Face covered his ears but was still momentarily deafened at the loud BANG in the enclosed space.

"He won't be calling for backup now," she said as she pocketed her gun and his and his knives.

Murdock came running back into the house and frantically asked, "What was that? Is everybody okay?"

"We're fine, but the radio died," Face told him, "Did you find it, Murdock?"

"Yeah I found it," Murdock held up the small transmitter, "What do I do with it?"

"Put it on his jeep!" Jean told him, "We're taking that copter and flying out of here and we're going to take laughing boy with us for the ride."

"I swear, I close my eyes and it's Hannibal," Face dryly commented as Murdock ran back out the door.

"Shut up, Face, and give me a hand with him," Jean said as she grabbed Decker's arms and started dragging him to the door.

"Well what're we going to do with him?" Face wanted to know.

"I've got an idea that should get him off our trail," she said, "There's a lake not far off from here, and we're going to drop him right in the middle of it."

"What!"

Jean grinned maniacally as she looked down at Decker and told Face, "Mr. Decker seems to think very highly of himself, let's see if he walks on water, or if he sleeps with the fish."

Face slowly backed away from her, suddenly getting the idea that she may have actually snapped this time, "You can't be serious."

"I am," she said, "Decker's going to go for a swim, now get over here and help me carry him out."

Face wasn't sure yet just how they were going to get out of this one but for the time being he helped Jean carry Decker out to the helicopter.

"I fixed the radio so we can get in contact with Hannibal and B.A. in the van," Murdock told them.

"That's fine," Jean said, "We're going to take Decker with us and drop him off about halfway."

"Halfway to where?" Murdock asked.

"I'll tell you on the way, in the meantime let's get Sleeping Ugly strapped in before he wakes up," she answered.

Face took the opportunity to poke her in the shoulder and tell her, "I don't careif it _is_ Decker, you _can't_ throw a man out of a flying helicopter!"

"You watch me," she replied with a chilling calmness and a grin that made Face's blood run cold, "Now get in the copter."

Face turned and looked over to Murdock who only shrugged, but also looked like he thought this could be interesting. Murdock had a feeling that there was more to this than met the eye and he was curious to find out just where it was going to lead. Also, _he_ was the one at the controls, if anything started to go awry, he could shift the whole bird at the last minute and spoil any plans anybody might have. True, he didn't want to see Decker bite it either, even though Murdock couldn't think of a nicer guy for the job at the moment, but something just told him that no matter what happened here today, they would unfortunately be seeing plenty more of Colonel Roderick Decker in the future, so he wasn't worried.

"Everybody aboard," he said before climbing into the cockpit.

* * *

B.A. had been out working on his van when he and Hannibal heard Murdock come through on the radio. Hurriedly, Murdock explained that Decker had found them, and they had taken care of the problem for the time being, but he told the colonel and sergeant to meet them at a certain spot at an abandoned beach because that was where they would be landing, and that they would explain the rest when they got there. Hannibal didn't like the sound of it, but fortunately he knew the place because he remembered doing a few scenes for the last Aquamaniac movie at that beach since nobody ever went there. B.A. was able to get them there just a few minutes before they saw the chopper flying overhead, and it did start to come down but both men were surprised to see that it was _not_ landing on the beach.

"What's that crazy fool doing?" B.A. asked Hannibal.

Hannibal shook his head as he watched the copter and said, "I don't know."

The chopper flew past the sands of the beach and still continued to lower as it flew over the water, the two men watched in complete and total confusion and then shock as they saw the doors open and two figures fell out and they realized that Face and Jean had jumped out of the chopper; a few seconds later it headed further out towards the ocean and Murdock too had bailed out and submerged in the water just a couple of seconds before the Huey crashed in the ocean. The rotor blades spun around like crazy for a few seconds before something exploded and the whole thing blew up in flames.

"My God!" Hannibal exclaimed as they ducked down to avoid being hit with the debris, and when the initial explosion had died down, both men ran out into the water to find the others.

Face had gotten closest to the shore and was only a few feet away, but Hannibal found him facedown in the water and not moving. He grabbed Face and pulled him up to surface and to see if he was breathing; and while Hannibal had him, B.A. ran further out into the water and came upon Jean who was being washed towards the shore by the incoming tide. She refused his help when he tried pulling her up and told him, "Not me, get Murdock!"

B.A. went further out into the water and had to be careful making his way around the wreck of the copter, and he found Murdock knocked under the water and unresponsive, he almost looked like he was asleep.

"Murdock!" B.A. grabbed the pilot and pulled him up, "Are you alright, man?"

Murdock opened his eyes and opened his mouth but immediately started choking and was coughing up water. Meanwhile, Hannibal had managed to get Face onto the shore, and he was breathing, but he was slow to respond and Hannibal was trying to get him to talk. Face opened his eyes and looked down and was upset; he saw Hannibal's boots, his $600 ostrich skin boots that he had made such a big deal about back in Jamestown, soaked clear through from him running into the surf.

"Aw Hannibal," he whined weakly, "You ruined your boots."

Hannibal laughed in nervous relief that not only was Face talking, but actually said something typical for him. He hugged the lieutenant tightly and told him, "It's okay, kid."

Jean had managed to get to the shore behind them and she was anxious as B.A. came up, practically carrying Murdock who was still coughing up water and trying to speak at the same time.

"Is everyone alright? Did everybody get out in time, B.A.?" he asked frantically.

"Yeah man, everyone's fine," B.A. told him as he hit him on the back.

"Murdock, are you alright?" Jean asked him.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," he said as he tried to stand straight but instead swaggered and about fell down, but B.A. snagged him back at the last minute, "Right as the rainforest."

"Great," Hannibal said, "Now that we've established that everyone is okay, what's going on? What happened out there?"

"Decker tracked us with the copter," Murdock answered as he smoothed back his wet hair, "We got rid of the bug but we couldn't take any chances, so we had to dump it."

Jean looked at Hannibal and explained, "We made a stop and he took something out so the helicopter would naturally crash, but he had it planned out so we could reach the ocean and bail out safely right before it happened."

"What was the idea of that?" Hannibal asked.

"Because," Face said, "If the crash goes down as pilot error, we're liable, if the helicopter had been vandalized before we took it out or something simply malfunctioned _after_ our takeoff, it's not our fault when the studio finds out that it crashed and burnt on the beach."

Hannibal looked at Face and asked him, "And what about Decker? Where is he?"

Everybody clammed up and the three of them just exchanged odd looks between one another.

"What happened to Decker?" Hannibal asked firmly.

They looked at each other, and then at him and Jean said, "We'll tell you what happened to Decker, but first we've got to go back."

"Back? Back where?"

"A couple miles back, that's where we left the camera," Murdock answered.

"The camera? What in the world do you need that for?" Hannibal wanted to know.

Jean answered by saying to Hannibal, "Look Hannibal, do you want us to _tell_ you what happened to Decker, or would you rather see it with your own eyes?"

Hannibal and B.A. turned and looked at each other, wonder just _what_ they had missed, and what they were going to find out.


	14. Chapter 14

Hannibal about choked on his cigar as they watched the footage on the tape showing Jean in the back of the helicopter with an unconscious Decker as she tried to put his jacket back on over a lifejacket she'd slipped on him. She looked straight to the camera and said, "Why'd you start the camera _now_, dummy?"

They heard Face's voice respond, "Just so the people at home can relax and know this isn't real. So tell the people at home what's going to happen."

Jean pointed over to the door and said, "Very soon we're going over a big lake that doesn't have a lot of people visiting it anymore. When we go over it, we're going to go down lower and our friend Decker here is going to go for a little swim. I figure if that doesn't wake him up, nothing should."

"Isn't that going to be dangerous, though?" Face asked cynically.

"I don't think so," she replied, "It turns out that there's this one little old couple that comes out on the lake every day at the same time in a little boat, I figure if we get the drop just right he should make his landing very close to where they're going to be rowing on by. Naturally when they see him they'll help him out of the water, but I don't know that he is going to enjoy the favor."

"And why is that?" Face asked.

Jean grinned for the camera and explained, "They moved here to California six years ago, but they immigrated to the United States from Saigon during the Vietnam War."

Hannibal almost swallowed his cigar from laughing so hard when he heard that part. On the film, Jean had gotten Decker's jacket buttoned up so the orange life preserver wasn't showing anymore and she waved her finger at the camera and said, "Alright, now when we make the final cut on this, this is where we start, alright?"

"Alright," Face replied.

Jean opened the door and the camera caught a glimpse at the blue lake down below, and Jean grabbed Decker by the back of his jacket and hauled him up into a sitting position and told him, "So long, Mr. Decker, have a nice swim, give my regards to Flipper," and she half shoved, half kicked him out of the helicopter and they saw Decker plummet to the water below and make a big splash.

Hannibal and B.A. were almost paralyzed by the time the video ran out from laughing; Murdock, Face and Jean were crammed together on the top of the couch and didn't make a sound between them but they were relieved that it was such a big hit with the colonel and the sergeant.

"And you're sure he was unconscious during all that?" Hannibal asked.

"I made sure of that," Jean told him, "Of course I would've preferred just throwing him out and letting him drown but I was outvoted on that one, so we had to stop and pick up the lifejacket."

"You can be sure when they fish him out, he'll be fuming for weeks over this one," Face said.

Hannibal was to a point he could hardly breathe and was still laughing. He looked to Jean and told her, "That was a good idea, kid, but how did you come up with it?"

"I have my ways," she answered, "But there's one thing I don't get, Hannibal, why all of a sudden is Decker suddenly doing these witch hunts solo when he usually brings a whole parade with him?"

"It's a good question," Hannibal said, "I don't doubt he thinks he could do the job by himself, but that never stopped him before from bringing the militia along for the ride."

"Well I hope he keeps on with this current idea," Jean said, "We can have a _lot_ more fun at his expense this way."

Hannibal craned his neck around to look at her and he told her, "Now wait a minute, Jean, don't be getting any ideas about this."

"Come on, Hannibal, don't you think Decker's at least guessed that I'm involved in this? So since I'm in it already, I might as well make the most of it."

"You're only in this as a result of bad timing, this is _our_ fight," Hannibal told her.

"Well as long as I _am_ in it I might as well do something about it, shouldn't I?" she asked, "If I can help keep him off the scent, I will, if I could _bury_ him it would be better."

* * *

The next couple of days passed without incident; the idea of actually being able to lay low and take it easy was nice in theory, however in practice it often proved an exercise in futility. Without any pressing issues that needed their immediate attention, Hannibal and Face were actually finding it possible to become bored. By the third day a heat wave hit the city and Jean's house was no exception; it was 110 outside and due to an air conditioner that wasn't supposed to be running until the next spring, the inside was close to 95. B.A. took a look at the air conditioner and after an hour managed to get it running, and while any decrease in the temperature would be an immense relief, the heat only got taken down to 85, still plenty warm for anybody's comfort, and as hot as it was all day, it didn't get_ any_ better at night.

Murdock had gone with Jean to her room for the night since he figured Face would not be dressing for bed and he expected his privacy for that. Oddly enough the heat inside or out hadn't been enough to get him out of his jacket or his shoes; somehow the others had all managed to succumb to the hot stuffy air and fall asleep, but the two of them stayed awake and drank a couple of beers that had been ice cold in the beginning but were quickly working their way to the level of lukewarm.

Sometime around midnight, Jean also managed to fall asleep but Murdock could tell it was anything but comfortable; the half of her that he saw was covered in perspiration and he was sure the other half was stuck to the sheets for the same reason. He paced around the room a few times and every so often glanced out the window, and finally an idea came to him and he went over to the bed and shook Jean to wake her up, "Hey Saint."

"What is it?" she tiredly asked as she tried burying her face in the pillow.

"Get up," Murdock said as he grabbed her and started to pull her to the edge of the bed.

Jean didn't even have her eyes open, but she was awake enough to ask him, "We going flying again?"

"No, I got another idea," he said.

Jean worked her eyes open one at a time and asked him, "What is it?"

"You still got a swimsuit, don't you?"

"Yeah sure, why?" she tiredly asked.

"Get it," he told her, "We're going swimming."

Jean fell back against the pillows and asked him, "Where?"

"There's a pool about half a mile from here, isn't there?" he asked.

"Yeah, city pool," Jean answered as she tried going back to sleep.

"Well," he told her as he climbed on the bed beside her to get her attention, "It's always been to my understanding that the _best_ time to frequent the public pool is when there's nobody else there, and the best time for that to happen is when it's closed for the night."

Jean opened one eye and looked up at him, and then the other eye, and she smiled at him and said, "Why not? We won't have to pay admission." She started to sit up and asked, "Shall we get Face up and see if he wants to join us?"

"Nah, the man wants to sleep, let him sleep," he told her.

"Why? You wouldn't let _me_ sleep," she replied teasingly.

All the same she got up and followed him out of her room down to the storage room and they crept down the fire escape and took her car out of there and parked a block away from the city pool; there they climbed over the chain link fence that had been bolted up for the night and got a running start before jumping clear in. It was a major relief after the heat of the day, to Murdock it was like diving into a large glass of ice water; as soon as every inch of his skin was covered in the cold water he felt like he was in heaven. They spent half an hour swimming and wrestling in the water, laughing and screaming though they worried too much attention would bring someone to investigate the noise.

After a while, they both became quiet and Jean thought they would be leaving soon to make sure they weren't arrested. She had half pulled herself out of the water and was wringing out her mohawk when she heard Murdock humming the theme from Jaws, a second before he tackled her and pulled her back in the water with him. They fought and splashed each other for a while longer before they finally got out of the pool, grabbed their clothes and scaled the wall again and headed back for Jean's car.

The night was still hot and it didn't take long for them to dry out; the stars were out but the main source of illumination was the whitish blue street lamps on every corner, they made things stick out so nobody walked into anything, but unless someone was standing right under one, actually being able to see them wouldn't be any easy task. All the same, when Murdock turned the corner and saw a man in _that_ uniform, he stopped dead in his tracks, causing Jean to walk into him, and he grabbed her and pulled her back around the corner before they were spotted.

"What's the matter, Murdock?" she asked.

"Look over there," he pointed at the man, "You see him?"

Jean was able to see the outline of a helmet and a familiar uniform, "An MP around here?"

Murdock saw the man turn and was able to make out his facial features a bit and he doubled back with Jean at his side.

"That's Crane, Decker's right hand man," Murdock told her, "Every time Decker tries to bust us that guy's always right there behind Decker, but I don't remember seeing him around _this_ time."

"Where's he been, on vacation?" Jean asked.

"I don't know," Murdock said, "But we better get out of here before he spots us," Murdock said.

"We can't, we have to go past him to get to my car," Jean told him, and an idea came to her, "Give me your jacket and your cap."

He scowled at her and said, "Aw come on Saint, you don't think I'm going to fall for that one again, do you?"

"No, give them to me," she said, he handed them to her and she explained, "As far as anybody knows, you're still locked up at the V.A., you're not here with anybody else from the Team, so nobody, not even Crane would have any reason to look at you and assume _anything_, especially here in the dark in the dead of night. As far as this guy's going to know, we're just a couple of people passing by, you get it now?"

"I get it but I don't like it," Murdock said, "It might not work."

"Well there's a backup plan incase it doesn't," Jean told him, and tucked his jacket and cap under her arm, and with her free hand she reached up and messed up Murdock's hair so it stood up where it ordinarily didn't, "Let's go."

Arm in arm they walked along the concrete sidewalk in the night and managed to walk right past Crane without him saying or doing anything, in fact he didn't seem to pay any attention to them whatsoever. Once they were a block away, they hopped into Jean's car and drove back to the house; and once there, Murdock went back on the footage he'd filmed to show Jean something, and she couldn't believe what she saw.

Murdock had gone back before they gave Decker a diving lesson and Jean recognized the restaurant they were at when the MPs stormed the place; the footage was mostly shot to show the faces of the MPs who were getting pies shoved in them, but not so much of the three people throwing the pies. Jean saw herself elbow one MP in the nose and break the seltzer bottle over the other's head and she felt like she'd lapsed into a nightmare.

"You _were_ there," she said, "You saw it, you knew I about killed that man."

"And I knew that Hannibal took control of the situation like he always does," Murdock told her, "I knew he wouldn't let you do anything you'd regret." He wound the footage back again and showed Jean, "You look at the men in green, there's Decker, but Crane is nowhere to be seen, these last few times he's chased us, Crane hasn't been there."

"Which once again raises the question, where the hell _has_ he been?" Jean asked, "And what does it all mean?"

"_That_ is what we've got to find out," Murdock replied, "Maybe the Colonel will have an idea about it tomorrow."

"I think you may be onto something, Murdock," she said, "Because when I crashed my car into his, I never saw that guy Crane anywhere either, he sure as hell wasn't the one driving the car. Do you think there's a connection to Crane's absence and Decker going solo now?"

"Could be," Murdock nodded, "Could be."

* * *

The next morning when Murdock told Hannibal about what they'd found out, Hannibal agreed the whole thing seemed odd, but he wasn't sure if there was a connection. If there was, he said that he would look into the matter later, but today it was _his_ turn at the studio because they had to reshoot the death of the Aquamaniac's second victim.

"Hannibal don't you think that's kind of dangerous?" Jean asked, "Decker _knows_ you work in the movies, that's how he followed us in the chopper, if even Lynch could find you down there Decker won't have any trouble either, and if this guy Crane is nosing around then Decker can't be too far off, can he?"

"Perhaps," Hannibal nodded, "But the saying goes don't give up your day job and for the time being that's what this is, besides, that's why B.A.'s coming with me, if anybody _does_ come to the studio, who better to make a fast getaway?"

"Man you are unbelievable," Jean told him, "You know what I think? I think you like the chase too much."

Hannibal was a patronizing person on occasion, and this was no exception; instead of actually responding to Jean he just chuckled and patted her on the head like a dog and told her, "You behave yourself while we're gone," he pointed to the others and added, "You too."

"Yes sir, Colonel," Murdock saluted him.

Hannibal went from Jean to Murdock and shook his hand and over to Face and took him by surprise and kissed him and said, as the lieutenant yelped in shock and disgust, "Goodbye, dear."

Jean and Murdock had a good laugh at his expense as Hannibal and B.A. left the house and it was just the three of them alone for the day.

"What do you think, Face?" Jean asked him, "You think there's a connection to all this?"

"Who knows? Who knows why Decker does _anything_ that he does?" Face replied.

"Well they're gone for the day," Jean said, "What do we do now?"

Murdock had apparently already given the matter some thought; he went digging through Jean's music collection and found a tape he liked and put it on, cranked the volume up and grabbed her to dance with. Face could tell that Jean hadn't expected it but she was a good sport and caught on quickly and managed to keep in step with him, something that wasn't easy to do since he had some very unusual methods of dancing, and this was something Face knew too well because in past times when Murdock came up empty handed for a partner, he always substituted with _him_.

"Tell me something, Murdock," Jean said.

"Yeah?"

"Do they ever get any overhead shots for the Aquamaniac movies?" she asked.

"I don't know," he shook his head, "I never noticed."

"I was just thinking that would be an easy way to keep an eye on things down there, and an easier way to get Hannibal and B.A. out of there incase Decker _did_ come in," she said.

"Except for one thing," Face reminded her, "You'll never willingly get B.A. on anything that flies and we wouldn't have time to knock him out, remember?"

Jean rolled her eyes and said, "That man's stubbornness is going to be the downfall of all of us someday." She looked back at Murdock and asked him, "_How_ did he ever become a paratrooper?"

Murdock shook his head, "Talking to the wrong person, I wasn't there at the time, I was Air Force, they were Army."

"And the two don't intermingle?" Jean asked.

"Not like _you'd_ think anyway," he replied, "Army's got a lot of rules, it's just like football, too many rules, you know football's the only game where you can get flagged 10 yards for breathing wrong."

"That would explain why I never played it," she said, "Also explains why I never would've lasted at the army."

Murdock let go of one of her hands and used his to scratch his head as he thought about something and he told Face, "Now that you think about it, the whole war was pretty much like a football game."

"Aren't they all?" Jean asked.

"What do you mean?" Face wanted to know.

"Think about it," Jean said, "Does the big fat coach that's always telling everybody else what to do _ever_ go out on the field and do it himself? No, that's not his job, just like in war. Whoever declares the war is the coach, he _makes_ the mess, but instead of cleaning it up himself, he picks 3 million boys to go and do it for him while he sits back comfortably and then tells _them_ what _they're_ doing wrong. But if _he_ would ever be right in the middle of it, he wouldn't last 10 minutes."

A thought occurred to Face and he tapped Jean on the shoulder and asked her, "Incidentally you don't play chess, do you?"

Murdock chose to answer instead, and explained, "I know a guy at the V.A. who plays chess, every day, but he doesn't have any pieces so he uses cookies from the cafeteria instead. Chocolate chip cookies are the pawns, shortbread are the knights, thin mints are the rooks, he always gives those to somebody saying they're the most worthless pieces in the whole game."

"Who does he play with?" Jean asked.

"Nobody," Murdock answered, "He plays both sides by himself, he's not a very sociable kind of guy if you know what I mean."

"So what did this guy Decker do in Vietnam?" Jean asked, "What's his story?"

"Isn't much of one to that guy," Face explained, "He's ruthless, bloodthirsty, egotistical, and would love nothing more than to see us rotting in Fort Bragg, either that or…" he pointed to the floor, "You know…pushing up the daisies. Hannibal summed it up best, this guy bombed Cong hospitals like it was his favorite sport."

"Probably got a lot of brass," Jean commented, "Of course it's no mystery, they don't give out medals for holding hands with the Vietnamese…still, I can't help but wonder."

"What?" Murdock asked.

She looked at him and said nonchalantly, "Decker might've been a bloodthirsty killing machine back in the jungles of Vietnam, but he's in the concrete jungles of Los Angeles now, and I never had any qualms about killing in a civilian sector."

Murdock looked past Jean and saw the worried look on Templeton's face, and he could understand the reason why. Nobody else had been present that night in the hospital when Brutus died, so the others didn't understand that the killing sensation had likewise died out in Jean, or at least dimmed out to a point where she was plenty of intent and plot, and largely talk, but he knew that if it came down to it, she wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. Of course he knew that two people could never actually know each other very well, so the best he could do was _hope_ it was true.

"Murdock," Jean leaned in to him to speak directly into his ear, "I've got an idea."

"What's that?" he asked.

"Face suggested that Decker had _all_ the copters from the movie lot bugged, you think there could be any truth to that theory?"

"Well it's possible," he agreed.

"That's what I thought," she said, "So if _we_ wanted to tail _them,_ why should we have to find any new bugs?"

Murdock stopped dancing and looked at her for a second, and then he asked her, "What do you have in mind, Saint?"

"Well we already bugged Decker's jeep but the odds are he's not going to go back for it," she said, "But what about this guy Crane? I say we find out where he is and where he's going, and plant a bug on his car, then we can find out if he and Decker are still in cahoots with each other or not. Can you imagine the sight that'll make, all the MPs' cars and all the army's men chasing after _another_ MP's car, and we just follow the convoy."

"But how're we going to get down there without drawing any attention to ourselves?" Face asked, "If Decker _does_ come in to raid the studio…"

"Then it's all the better we _are_ there to help Hannibal and the big mudsucker," Murdock added.

"Well I've got an idea how we can get in without anybody noticing us," Jean told Face, "You know all those costumes I got upstairs from the sets?"

"What about them?" Face asked.

Jean pointed to him and said, "You're the most recognizable, so _you_ put on the Kamikaze Racer uniform, Murdock and I'll change into a couple of the others I've got tucked away, and if anybody asks, we got lost on the way to the shoot."

"It's a plan, Faceman," Murdock said, "Hey, I'm rhyming again!"

* * *

Face was starting to see why Jean was not particularly fond to the suit she had to wear for this movie; he was sure it weighed 25 or 30 pounds if it weighed an ounce with all the extra padding in it, and then the boots he guessed were an additional 10 pounds on each foot.

"They really have you race around in this?" he asked.

Jean, who had changed into fatigues and a camouflage jacket and combat boots, pointed at his own boots and explained, "Those are just for when he finally gets out of the car and you see him walking around, for the most part we wear a lighter pair that is more reliable for driving but they don't look as good."

"Hey Faceman, how's this for irony?" Murdock asked as he stepped out of the next room in a Thunderbirds pilot uniform.

Face didn't say anything and just turned and gawked at Jean curiously.

"Okay," she said with her hands up in a surrender gesture, "So I bring a few more costumes home than are actually necessary, so what? You have any idea how many outfits some of these people go through 12 times in a day and just throw them away after the end of one shoot?"

"Hey this could work out better than we planned," Murdock said as he adjusted the lapel on his jacket, "We could say we're technical advisors."

"That's the spirit, come on Face, we've got to get going," Jean told him.

They got in her car and drove to the studio and did well to get lost in the neverending crowds of actors, extras, technicians, makeup artists, and the common everyday sightseers who stopped to see a movie being made. They got to the hangar where the copters were kept and Murdock made short work of searching for another tracking device and slipped it into his pocket for the time being.

"Now for the next question," Face said, "_How_ are we going to find Crane?"

"Well I don't know _what_ he was doing out by the pool last night," Murdock told Face, "But he might retrace his steps and maybe we ought to as well, I mean what _was_ he doing out there last night with nobody around?"

They managed to get back out of the studio as easily as they'd gotten in, but none of them felt that they'd made a perfect getaway; everywhere they went they turned their heads to look at the people standing all around and see if there was anybody in the crowds that didn't belong, and it was impossible to tell.

Since they only had one transmitter it didn't make much sense for all three of them to go out creeping around the neighborhood looking for Crane, especially since he could identify Face, so reluctantly he stayed behind that night while Jean and Murdock went out in search of the MP again.

"You know much about this guy Crane?" Jean asked Murdock during the drive.

"Not much," he answered, "Hannibal probably knows the most about him and even that probably isn't much."

"What's the matter, Murdock?" Jean asked teasingly, "Don't you guys believe in 'know your enemy'?"

He turned and glared at her coyly and she returned the glare before he looked back at the road and explained, "Decker is the enemy, Crane is more a victim of circumstance."

"He'd still turn you in to Decker, wouldn't he?" Jean asked.

"Yes," Murdock answered matter-of-factly, "That is his job."

"Yeah, where's his contract?" she wanted to know.

Murdock hit the brakes and they both got thrown against the dashboard, when they pulled themselves back he pointed out a car on the next corner that had a pair of lights on top. They got out of the car and walked over to it and saw that it wasn't a cop car, it was one of the army's.

"He's got to be around here somewhere then," Jean said.

"Yeah," Murdock took the transmitter out of his pocket, "But we already found the car so we just have to make sure he doesn't find us in the next minute." Jean watched him walk around to the back of the car and slip the device under the fender, and he said, "Let's get out of here before he comes back."

"We're not leaving?" Jean asked as they made a mad dash back for the car.

"No, but we gotta be out of sight if we're going to follow him without him seeing us first," Murdock explained.

They got back to her car and waited in the dark for half an hour before they saw the silhouette of a man that they presumed to be Crane, get into the car and drive off, and Murdock managed to keep their car half a block behind Crane's at all time. After a couple of miles, the army car got off the main road and pulled up near a house in a wooded area that was a good distance away from civilization.

"Think he's meeting anyone here?" Jean asked.

"Doubt it," Murdock answered, "More likely this is where _he's_ staying right now."

"What time do these army guys get up?" she asked.

"Five A.M. at least," Murdock answered.

"Okay," she told him, "I got a new idea…take that bug off the car, if Crane _is_ still working with Decker, _that's _probably the car they're going to use to chase after Hannibal and the others in, right?"

"Most likely," Murdock agreed, but didn't get where this was going, "So what?"

* * *

As Murdock had told Jean, at 5 o' clock the next morning Crane was up and ready to leave. He had just stepped out of the house when somebody came up behind him and hit him in the back of the neck with something he could identify as being a gun. He was knocked facedown on the ground and he felt the gun pointed at the side of his face and he heard a woman's voice say, "You move, Crane, and you're a dead man, you got that?"

"Yes ma'am," he replied calmly, wondering just what the _hell_ was going on.

Jean kept her gun on him and made sure that Murdock stayed back where Crane couldn't see him. She leaned in close to Crane and asked him, "You on your way to get Decker, Crane?"

"Yes ma'am," he answered with no emotions and his eyes staring straight ahead.

"What weapons are you carrying?" she asked.

"Just a sidearm, ma'am," he answered.

Jean took the gun out of his belt and asked him, "That the car you're going to pick up Decker in?"

He confirmed that and Jean demanded to know where the keys were, he answered that they were in his front pocket. Jean grumbled about always getting stuck with the dirty work, but took the keys out, as well as Crane's walkie-talkie and shot it. Then she asked him, "Just where the hell have you been, Crane? I know you haven't been with Decker the last couple of weeks, so where _have_ you been?"

"Hospital, ma'am," he answered like it was all routine, "Got caught in a grenade explosion and had pieces of shrapnel removed from both my legs and my back."

"For three weeks?" Jean asked.

"Infection set in, doctors said it was touch and go for a while," he told her.

Jean wasn't moved, she pulled the lever back on her gun and told him, "Sorry, Crane, I got nothing against you personally, but if you move, or if you tell _anybody_ about me, or if you get up before I'm gone, I'm gonna have to kill you."

"I understand, ma'am," he said with an eerie calmness and acceptance.

Jean ordered him not to move as she took his helmet and wrestled his jacket off of him; as much as was possible he became one with the ground beneath him and never once tried to look up at his assailant.

"Where _is_ Decker?" she asked him as she put on his jacket.

"I won't divulge that information," he told her.

"I can respect that," she said, "Do you have any idea why Decker's suddenly been on the move without any assistance from the military police?"

"Negative, ma'am," he said.

"You know what Decker's next move _is_?" she asked him.

"I do not," he answered.

"Would you answer if you did?" she wanted to know.

Crane cracked a small smile at that one as he answered, "No."

Jean smirked in return and said, "I can understand that…" she nodded towards the car and got in Crane's line of vision so he didn't see Murdock and she told him, "Alright pal, we leave you now, but remember, you never saw me, because if you suddenly remember my being here, I'll come back and kill you. Don't think I'd enjoy it, but if I have to I will."

"I understand, ma'am," Crane assured her.

Jean pocketed his gun and kept hers pointed at him as she backed up to the car and got in the driver's side. A minute later they were burning rubber and leaving Crane in the dust.

"Clyde Barrow couldn't have done it any better, darling," Murdock told her.

Jean couldn't help smiling though she said, "I almost feel sorry for that guy Crane, you can tell he's not the brains behind these wild goose chases."

Murdock bobbed up and down in his seat a few times before he turned to Jean and told her, "You know, I'm getting pretty tired of this…all this hiding, I want to be acknowledged as a member of the A-Team because that's exactly what I _am_."

Jean felt like arguing with him on them matter though she didn't because she knew she was just as guilty as the others; everything that had been done was done in the name of protecting Murdock and keep him from being a wanted fugitive along with the rest of them, but it went against everything she believed because he might have been safe from the military, but he was still a prisoner, he had fewer rights than the rest of them did being locked away in the madhouse all the time.

"I'm sorry, Murdock," she told him.

He looked over at her and said, "Oh, I didn't mean you, Saint…it's just that this has been going on for over 10 years now, and I'm getting tired of it, I want to be known for my part in the Team."

She thought about it for a minute and said, "I guess Decker chasing you all over the state couldn't possibly be any worse than being shut up at the V.A., could it?"

He gazed over at her and said, "Oh hey, don't you worry about your old buddy Murdock, I'll be fine no matter what happens, I'm just thinking out loud here, they encourage that at the V.A…up to a point anyway."

Jean inhaled what she was going to say and told Murdock, "You better let the others know what happened."

Murdock took out a walkie talkie and let Hannibal know that they got the car and would be at his location soon. It was only after he'd signed off that he noticed Jean was starting to look worried and he asked her, "What's wrong?"

"We might be getting there sooner than expected," she told him.

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

Jean quickly glanced over at him and said, "Somebody else must hate Decker as much as you guys do, the brakes aren't working!"

Murdock looked down and saw Jean had buried the brake pedal to the floor and the needle on the speedometer was still climbing; and he saw what she didn't see, that the accelerator was stuck to the floor of its own accord. He looked out the windows to see just how fast everything was going by and he and Jean reached the same conclusion; their best bet was to jump out before the car went any faster or they hit something. They threw the doors open and tucked and rolled out at the same time just a few seconds before the car crashed into a large oak tree and the whole front was smashed in.

Hannibal, Face and B.A. weren't too far off when they saw the car coming towards them and crash, and they ran to see what had happened. At the same time, Murdock was on the ground rolling over onto his back and groaning softly; he opened his eyes and saw Jean was sprawled out on the ground and didn't seem to have as much luck getting around. He crawled over to her and asked her, "You alright, Saint?"

"Of course I'm alright," she insisted, "I'm a stuntman, that's what they pay me for." All the same, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell down against the hard ground again.

Hannibal and Face came up just at that time and helped get them to their feet.

"What happened?" Hannibal asked.

"I don't know," Jean answered, "But whoever's responsible, I don't know whether to kick him in the teeth or buy him a steak."

"You're lucky that car didn't explode," Face told them.

"I know it," Jean said, "Which reminds me, the next time I go to work, I'm insisting that they get me fitted with some of that flame retardant skin cover like they used on the stuntmen for the Towering Inferno, they could burn for 30 seconds before having to be extinguished, that'll come in _real_ handy if the car ever _does_ decide to spontaneously combust in a crash."

Face leaned over to Hannibal and said confidentially, "I think she rattled her brain in the fall."

"What happened to the car?" Hannibal asked Murdock.

"Colonel, I don't know," Murdock said, and he was gesturing wildly with his hands as he explained, "There was _nothing_ wrong with this car last night when Crane was driving it, and today we take it and the brakes stop working and the accelerator sticks to the floor."

"Somebody tampered with the car?" Face asked, "Why?"

"To kill Decker obviously," Murdock said, "Crane said he was going to pick Decker up today, he'd just gotten out of the hospital."

"Wish whoever it was would've let _us_ know that," Jean commented.

Hannibal was left scratching his head on this one, "Who would want to kill Decker?"

"I don't know," Jean said, "But when we find the guy I'm buying him the strongest drink they got around here." A wave of dizziness blew over her and she fell down again. "Irony of all ironies, I threaten to kill Crane if he tries anything, and we wind up saving his life instead, that's fate!"

"Yup," Murdock nodded in agreement, "And somewhere out there is a little man with a long beard and a blue raincoat with the name J.J. Fate stomping his hat because everybody blames him for everything going on…this is one time the blame can't help but fall on him."


	15. Chapter 15

"So somebody is trying to murder our old friend, Decker," Hannibal said once they got back to Jean's house, "The question is who?"

"Why is another good one," Face added, "No doubt Decker's made a lot of enemies in his time but who would be determined enough to actually kill him?"

"Whoever it is," Jean said, "They're not trying hard enough, _bombing_ the car would've been more effective or even scouting out Decker's area with a sniper rifle with a high powered scope."

"Must be an amateur," Murdock thought.

"Or a phony," Jean said, "Suppose they only wanted to make it _look_ like someone was trying to kill him."

"You mean they knew we'd take the car?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know how they could've anticipated that," she told him, "But as many high speed chases as the MPs go on every time they come for you guys, the brakes going out is not going to be that big of a deal for _them_ I'll bet."

"So somebody's just trying to psyche us out," Face said.

"But the question goes back to why?" Hannibal asked.

"It's a good question," Jean said, "Nobody's ever tried to kill Decker before, why would they think we'd team up with whoever it is now?"

"Have to admit there's something appealing to the idea of somebody else who hates his guts," Face commented, "And actually has the nerve to do something about it."

"If it's true, he's an assassin after my own heart," Jean said, "But _is_ it true?"

A light bulb went off in Hannibal's head, "Crane gets injured in the line of duty, Decker loses his right hand man, and now all of a sudden he is ditching the rest of the Keystone Cops to go solo at the same time that his car is tampered with."

"An MP is the one trying to kill him?" Face realized.

"Or somebody _pretending_ to be one," Jean said, "You know how easy _that_ is to pull off. In any case, so what, who cares? If this guy actually succeeds at killing Decker, so much the better for everybody, they couldn't _possibly_ send in someone with an even bigger grudge against you to bring you in, can they?"

"The only thing that doesn't sit well with me," Hannibal said as he sat down on the couch, "Anybody who _would_ want to kill Decker if they had a reason for it, would have to have been sitting on it for quite some time…since the war ended, Decker came back and has practically lived like a hermit ever since, he has no family—"

"And it's a safe bet he doesn't have any friends and nobody likes him," Jean added.

"Regardless of that little fact," Hannibal continued, "What could Decker _possibly_ have done since coming home that would make anyone want to kill him?"

Murdock raised his hand and said, "Maybe Crane threw himself on that grenade."

Everybody looked at him, not as if he was crazy, but for the first time as if he was truly sane.

"What do you mean, man?" B.A. asked.

"I mean," Murdock slowly explained, "Maybe Crane was tired of being Decker's traveling companion and wanted out, he can't resign so the only way he can quit is if Decker dies or is transferred out…and murder is easier."

Hannibal considered this possibility, "Crane's supposed to be in the hospital, if anything happens to Decker during that time, he has an alibi, he gets out of the hospital, and just as he's supposed to take his car and get Decker, the brakes go out…problem is those brakes would've quit before Decker was ever in the car."

Now it was Jean's turn to look like somebody turned the lights on in her brain, "If he was going to run Decker over that would be the point though, he loses control of the car, Decker becomes a street pizza, the whole thing goes down as a terrible accident and Crane's rid of that festering wart that calls himself a colonel."

Hannibal and Face looked at each other and Hannibal said, "Weirder things _have_ happened."

"I don't know though," Face said, "Somehow I just can't see Crane up for murder."

"He's in the army, ain't he?" Jean asked.

"Now don't start that again," Hannibal warned her.

* * *

The next morning Murdock woke up groaning like he was slowly being tortured and rubbed his stomach as he told Face, "I don't feel so good."

"No wonder," Face told him, "Eating two pounds of radishes before bed and then you stayed up burping all night. The next time you get the idea to do that, you can find somebody else to bunk with for the night, I'm exhausted from listening to you."

The door opened and Jean stepped in carrying a glass of something white and fizzing, "If you think the sound in the room next door was any better, guess again." She went over to the bed and handed Murdock the glass and told him, "I didn't know what you take so I poured some Alka-Seltzer in with bicarbonate soda."

"Thanks, Saint," Murdock said as he drank the concoction as if it was a cup of black coffee.

"So," Face said to her, "The sound effects aside, did you get any sleep last night?"

"A little," she answered, "Still trying to figure out what this whole thing with Decker could possibly mean."

"Me too," Face said.

"It still doesn't make any sense to me why we're worrying about it though," Jean said, "If Crane wants to kill Decker, I say let him, from what I've seen of Decker he's got to be _the_ single most miserable excuse for a human being on this entire planet, why _not_ kill him?"

Face tried to laugh but failed at the attempt and he told Jean, "Do me a favor, if I'm ever in the hospital, _don't_ come and visit me."

He gathered his clothes for the day and went into the bathroom to change; Jean sat down on the bed beside Murdock and asked him, "Are you feeling any better?"

"Oh yeah," he answered with a nod, "Thanks." He was quiet for a minute before he turned to Jean and told her, "My sixth sense is telling me that Decker is not far off."

"You think he's coming here again?" she asked.

"Well no…I don't know…no, I don't think so, but I get the feeling that he is close by, that we're going to be seeing him again before too long. I've got an idea," he nodded over towards his bag, "Get my Ouija board out."

"Forget it, Murdock," Jean sat on her hands, "You know what I think about those things."

"Oh it won't bite you," he told her, "It's got a Bible on it to keep it quiet for the time being."

But Jean wouldn't budge, "I'm _not_ getting it."

"Alright, then I will," he got up and dug the board out of his bag and settled it down on the foot of the bed and put his fingertips on the planchette.

"And none of that Swahili stuff this time," Jean said, "If the dead want to talk through you, find somebody that speaks English."

Murdock closed his eyes and tilted his head back and slowly swayed back and forth, then he slowly rolled his neck so his head rose up and down in small circles and strange sounds emanated from deep within his throat; Jean sat back and watched this wondering what was going on, and Murdock opened his mouth and seemed to be piecing a word together, "Hel…hel…heli…helicopter…" his eyes opened and his head stopped moving, he seemed to be back to his regular self and he told Jean, "A helicopter."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I'm not sure yet," he told her, "But it's something worth remembering."

* * *

After his encounter with the Ouija board, Murdock couldn't let go of the idea that the spirits were trying to tell him exactly where to go, and by the afternoon he was at a breaking point; he was like a dog trying to break his leash and take off, and he was taking Face and Jean along for the ride. They took her car since it didn't draw as much attention as Face's 'Vette, though Face drove while Murdock directed where they were to go, even though nobody had any clue just what it was they were supposed to be looking for. During the drive, Jean chanced to look back the way they came and she told Murdock, "Your spirits better know the way to get back when this is over, we're so far off the main road now I don't think we'll ever find it again."

"Never fear, with the spirit guides we'll never stay lost," Murdock said.

"Oh that makes me feel a _lot_ better," Face said under his breath.

Jean was right though; they had gotten off any and all paved roads a couple miles back and were driving on dirt and rocks and over bumps and small hills and the only thing they saw as they drove past now was trees, trees and more trees. There didn't seem to be any end to the forest in sight, but suddenly Murdock stood up on the floor and told Face to stop the car. Face hit the brakes and they squealed like a pig as the car dragged to a stop.

"What is it, Murdock?"

Murdock looked to the sky with wide eyes and a determined look on his face and he said to them, "Listen…d'ya hear it?"

They didn't hear 'it' or anything for a minute, they looked around every which way trying to figure out what it was that Murdock was hearing, and then they heard it too. Very low at first and steadily rising to a louder and much more recognizable thwump-thwump-thwump of a helicopter rotor. They saw the chopper rise up in the distance, much of the view concealed by the treetops.

"An army copter!" Face couldn't believe it.

"They're not coming this way," Jean realized.

"They're not looking for us," Murdock said, "Then let us follow them."

Face wasn't sure about that idea but he got the car started and they kept the helicopter in sight and followed it as best as they could under the circumstances. They reached a clearing just as they saw the helicopter go down for a landing, but from any view they couldn't see anything anywhere to give any indication there was anybody working with the people in the chopper or awaiting their arrival. Face got the car as close as he could without them running the risk of being spotted, and they couldn't see anything particularly well but they were close enough to see that the men stepping down from the chopper were more MPs.

"Where do they all come from?" Jean wanted to know.

"I only see two of them," Murdock said, "Those are good odds, there's three of us."

"What're we going to do, knock them out and steal their uniforms _and_ the chopper?" Face asked.

"You got a better idea?" Jean asked.

"Even so, what _are_ we going to do with the chopper?" Face wanted to know.

"I don't know but that's their own transportation, they won't be expecting _us_ to arrive in it," Jean said, "We might just be able to get Decker in his own trap."

It _was_ an idea and right now the only one they had to work with. Catching up with the MPs and knocking them out was little trouble, Murdock and Face took their guns and their radios and got in the chopper, Jean got in with them and they were all crammed in the cockpit. Murdock flew them straight up so they could see their surroundings better, Face worked on the radio so they'd be able to use it to reach Hannibal and B.A., and Jean kept one of the MPs' assault rifles close by incase they had to open fire on somebody down below at a moment's notice; and she kept the door open to see down from her own side instead of straight ahead. The sun was already going down and before too long they'd be in the dark, so they decided to see what they could find as fast as they could before brining the copter down somewhere back towards civilization where they could reach the others.

"I'd sure love to know what all these army guys see in the forest," Jean said, "There's nothing out here but trees and shrubbery."

"Perfect place to hide," Face told her.

"Yeah but from what? And why? There's nothing out here to make it worth the trouble," she said, "There're no houses, no cabins, no hangars, there's nothing down there."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Murdock said, "Looks like a fire ahead down there."

He and Face looked out the windshield and Jean looked out the door and could see that Murdock was right, there was a fire lit down below in a cleared area with very few trees and the fire put just enough light on a handful of people standing around it.

"Take us down a bit, Murdock, let's get a closer look at this," Face said.

"Roger that," Murdock agreed.

They started to go down before they pressed on, and they were able to see that it was more MPs.

"They must be like rabbits," Jean said, "Every time you turn around there're a hundred more of them." An idea came to her and she told Murdock, "Take us down some more, I'm going to try something new."

As they went down to nearly 50 feet from the ground, Face turned to her and saw her getting the rifle ready and he asked her, "_What_ are you going to do?"

But she didn't answer him and said only, "Face, grab my legs."

"What for?" he asked, but he barely had time to ask the question before he got the answer. Jean threw her upper body out of the open door and Face only grabbed her ankles at the last second before she would've been thrown completely out of the copter. "What the hell are you doing! Are you insane?"

Jean didn't answer him, instead, hanging upside down like a bat, she managed to aim the rifle and opened fire on the MPs who were only about 40 feet below. The darkness mixed with the confusing sight of seeing their own copter suddenly attack them had caused enough confusion for the initial moment that nobody had been able to do much in the way of retaliation; they got a few rounds off but most of them didn't even come close to hitting her. Jean made sure that nobody on the ground actually got hit, true to the A-Team's M.O., but she also took a few lucky shots at their jeeps and cars and she must've hit something because a few of them blew up; and that was when Face reached out and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up and into the copter.

"Have you lost your mind!" he screamed at her, "Were you trying to kill yourself?"

Jean closed the door and told him, "If I was going to do that I would've succeeded long before now. This is a little psychological warfare at its best, they think they were attacked by their own men, they don't know what to believe, and what more, they don't have any way to get out of there now and find out what's going on."

"It won't hold them for long," Murdock told her, "But it's a nice touch."

"I just don't believe it!" Face said.

"Well Murdock was flying the copter and you weren't over here, I was the only one that could do it," Jean told him, as if that explained everything.

Face just shook his head and picked up the radio receiver to try and get a hold of Hannibal and B.A. and let them know what was going on.

* * *

B.A. had been waiting by the van, unable to shake the feeling that they'd be hearing from Faceman and the crazy fool before too long, and he was right; after an hour he heard static crackling on the radio and he ran into the house and got Hannibal. Hannibal followed the sergeant out the back door and he grabbed the radio and said into it, "What's up, Face?"

"Hannibal, you are not going to believe what's going on," Face told him, "We caught a couple of MPs with a helicopter and we found a campsite where other MPs are stationed."

"And?" Hannibal asked.

He couldn't get a direct answer because he could hear all three of them talking at the same time. He could see B.A. was starting to laugh at all the commotion and Hannibal just grinned at the three of them squabbling simultaneously. But then he heard something that sounded like a shot, or a short in the radio, followed by static and people screaming and he felt his heart sink, "Lieutenant, what's going on?"

Nobody was speaking directly into the radio though it was still on and he could hear Face asking desperately, "Murdock, what happened? Murdock, are you alright? Murdock!"

"Lieutenant, what happened?" Hannibal said into the radio, hoping for a response.

* * *

Murdock was slumped over the control panel and he could hear Face and Jean talking, screaming at him, trying to get a response out of him. He opened his eyes and readjusted the controls so they stayed in the air and he told them, "Sorry, guys, what hit me?"

"Murdock, are you alright?" Face asked.

"Uh…yeah," he answered slowly, "I'm fine, I just…I think I better land us soon."

Face remembered he had the radio in his hand and he said into it, "Hannibal, I don't know what happened but I think Murdock's hurt. He's going to take us down and I'm going to try and find something that you guys can go on to find us, I don't like the looks of this."

Jean leaned as far out over the controls as she could to see the ground down below but it was too dark to see anything other than the trees. An idea occurred to Face and he told Hannibal about the farmhouse they'd been at a couple days ago and tried to describe which way they'd come when they found it, hoping the others would be able to follow the same trail out there. Hannibal sounded fairly certain that he and B.A. would be able to find the house and he told them to hang in there until they arrived.

"Murdock, are you okay?" Jean asked, watching the pilot and seeing that he was slower than usual to respond to them or anything for that matter.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted, "I guess it's just catching up with me now not sleeping too well last night."

"Are you hit?" Jean asked him.

"Nah," Murdock shook his head, a little too fast to be convincing, "I'm fine."

Face and Jean looked at each other and couldn't help sharing the same worried thought, but they managed to keep it to themselves, and managed to keep themselves from panicking until Murdock managed to get them landed. It took a while but he managed to find the farmhouse and they were surprised to see the timing they were all making because they could see the headlights from the van pulling up as they went down for the landing.

Hannibal was the first one out of the van and he ran over to the three of them as Face and Jean walked out with Murdock leaning on both of them.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We don't know yet," Face answered.

Even in the dark Hannibal could tell Murdock wasn't feeling well. He looked over to the house and said, "Alright, let's get him inside and I'll examine him."

The door was still unlocked so they went right in and got the lights turned on. Hannibal walked Murdock over to the couch and sat him down and examined his clothes for any blood stains and didn't see any yet. He also tried talking to Murdock to see what the pilot could tell him, but Murdock was not responsive to most of Hannibal's questions and elusive to the others, still insisting that he was alright and that nobody needed to worry about him.

"Hannibal, there's a bed in this room," Face told him as he pointed to a door.

"That'll probably be better," Hannibal helped Murdock up and walked him over to the next room, and Jean followed behind them.

Face opened the door and turned on the light and Hannibal got Murdock settled on the bed and told him, "Alright, Captain, I'm going to take a look at you to make sure you're alright, is that okay?"

"Yeah, sure, Colonel," Murdock tiredly replied.

Hannibal started to remove Murdock's jacket when he saw Jean standing in the doorway. He got up and went to her and told her, "You don't have to be here for this."

"I'm not leaving, Hannibal," she insisted.

Hannibal knew this wasn't the time or place for a fight so he accepted this and went back to the bed to get Murdock undressed. The jacket came off and he saw no blood seeping through his blue plaid shirt, that went off too, as well as his T-shirt, still nothing. He talked to Murdock as he did all this, asking him if he was in any pain, did he remember anything happening during the flight, as he got Murdock out of his shoes and socks and finally his pants; Murdock answered vaguely and said he didn't remember anything out of the ordinary happening. Then he mentioned feeling dizzy and collapsing against the control panel, but he didn't know what had caused it. Every so often Hannibal glanced over towards the door and saw Jean and she looked like Murdock seemed to feel; though he tried to hide it, Hannibal could tell Murdock was feeling miserable.

When Hannibal finished examining Murdock, he pulled back the covers and got Murdock settled into bed and told him to rest, then he had Face and Jean follow him out into the living room. All through the examination he couldn't help but notice how they both looked, oddly enough, like one of them might be responsible for what had happened tonight.

"I want to make something clear first of all," Hannibal told them like they were a couple of children, he pointed at Face and told him, "What happened tonight wasn't your fault," he pointed to Jean, "And it wasn't your fault. Murdock was not shot, he doesn't appear to be wounded at all, he just seems to be sick."

"With what?" Jean asked.

"Well I don't know _what_, but he does have a fever," Hannibal said, "However it's not due to any infection brought on by an injury, thank God, it could be that he's just gotten the common cold and it's just setting in, I don't know, but the best thing to do right now is let him rest. We'll know better when he wakes up tomorrow how bad it is and what we need to do."

* * *

Jean and Face fell asleep sitting on the couch after a while, and while they slept, Hannibal and B.A. went around the house checking the windows to make sure nobody was outside. While B.A. continued keeping an eye out, Hannibal checked the stove to make sure it worked, and it did, and then he checked the kitchen to see if there was any food on hand; he didn't find much, the fridge was empty, the freezer had only a working icemaker, and in the cupboards he found one opened box of saltines with two sealed packs, two old cans of soup that just expired a month ago, half a jar of coffee, a small bottle of cooking oil and half a canister of popcorn seeds. Not much of anything to go on, and especially not enough for five people, but it would have to do until they could get to a store in the morning and get some more food, and medicine.

Hannibal had given Murdock a couple of pills for his fever; since seeing a doctor was often out of the question he took to keeping a few things on hand, and these he'd had the bottle to in his jacket pocket, but he cursed himself for not getting a new bottle a while back when he'd had the chance. There were five pills left, that would work for now but he wasn't sure if it would be enough to do the trick for Murdock. He didn't know how sick the man really was and he was in no mood to play guessing games with the pilot's health either. They would wait until morning and see if the fever went down and if Murdock was any better or worse; right now Hannibal didn't want to take a chance on moving Murdock unless they didn't have any choice, this would be the worst time imaginable to get into a showdown with Decker and his men on the road, and Hannibal knew it.

He and B.A. alternated keeping watch during the night, B.A. finally fell asleep around three, and Hannibal himself managed to stay awake until it neared five. They didn't get up until almost 10, an easy thing to do because the sun hadn't come up; in fact, judging by the dark clouds in the sky, Hannibal guessed that they might have a storm on their hands before too long.

One by one the others woke up and Hannibal went into Murdock's room to see if he was awake. He wasn't, but Hannibal wanted to know if there was any improvement, so he woke Murdock up and asked him, "How're you feeling, Captain?"

Murdock rubbed his eyes and groaned, "Sure thing, Colonel, be there in a minute," and turned on his side and went back to sleep.

Hannibal pulled his glove off and felt Murdock's forehead, it wasn't good news. When Jean asked, all Hannibal said was Murdock still needed to rest and he need to take more pills, but when she was gone and Face asked Hannibal how bad it really was, he told the lieutenant, "If I can still read a fever right, it's up to 102."

"What do we do?" Face asked, wanting to know if they stayed or if they chanced getting into town and to a hospital.

"If he gets any worse," Hannibal told him, "We'll take our chances and get him to a doctor, however, as we well know, men have come down from worse with far less help in far less suitable environments and managed to recover." Face nodded, remembering those days back in Vietnam. Hannibal continued, "Murdock's not as bad as that, I have faith that he'll do just fine if we leave him alone and let him rest."

Face nodded reluctantly; he wasn't too eager to try leaving either but he didn't like this feeling of standing around waiting for something to happen either. He and Hannibal did the best they could with the food they found in the kitchen to get everybody breakfast. Personally, he had eaten enough stale popcorn back in Vietnam when it was used to pad other guys' care packages from home, but since they didn't have a lot of alternatives, he cooked a skillet full of it and found a bowl to pour it and took it into the living room, where Jean still seemed to be half asleep.

"Sorry, it's not much but it's all we've got for right now," he said as he put the bowl down on the table by the couch.

"That's alright, I'm not real hungry anyway," she told him. All the same she picked up a few handfuls and ate them.

* * *

When Jean knew nobody was in the bedroom with Murdock, she got up from the couch and went in and quietly closed the door behind her. Murdock had apparently gotten dressed again and was wearing his T-shirt and his pants despite being wrapped up in the sheets.

"How're you feeling, Murdock?" she asked.

He opened his eyes and tried to smile for her, "Hey Saint, I'm alright, how bout you?"

This seemed familiar, only now the shoe was on the other foot. She leaned in towards him and asked him, "How do you _really_ feel?"

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I've never been worse, but I _have_ been a lot better," he told her. He saw the worried look on her face and he smiled again and told her, "Hey, don't you worry about me, it's going to take a lot more than a fever to get rid of your old buddy, Murdock. I just need to rest, alright?"

Jean nodded, she told him, "I'll stay here with you."

"That'll be nice," he said as he laid back down, "I appreciate it."

Jean tried sitting down in a rickety rocking chair by the bed but instead she climbed onto the bed beside him and told him, "No matter what happens, Murdock, I'm not leaving you."

"You may regret that," he told her, trying to joke, "I forgot to bring my deodorant." He could see it didn't have any effect on her and he told her, "I know it probably looks bad, but this ain't the first time I've been sick, so I don't want you worrying about it."

"You're going to be alright, aren't you?" she asked.

"Sure I will," he insisted as he pulled the covers up, "Just let me rest for a while, and before you know it I'll be bouncing off the walls again."

Jean laughed miserably and replied, "You never did that, Murdock."

"No, but I keep trying," he told her.

B.A. looked in on Murdock to see if the crazy man was awake, and he was disappointed to find that he was not; Murdock was in a dead sleep and Jean sat in a chair by the bed watching him and looking like she was about to crawl out of her skin. He pulled the door closed and walked away from the bedroom; he felt bad for both of them, especially Murdock. Like the others, B.A. had also never been able to forget last year when Murdock almost died in the fire; and he remembered at the time how haunted he had been by Jean's prediction that if anything _would_ happen to Murdock, he'd regret all the times he'd threatened Murdock over the years. He had a similar feeling now; Murdock was annoying when he acted crazy, but that was his 'normal' and that was how they knew he was alright, when he stopped jumping around, when he stopped singing, when he stopped talking about crazy things, then they knew something was wrong, and something was definitely wrong now too. Even when Murdock was shot he still kept talking crazy and making jokes, even if he wasn't alright he tried to convince the others that he was, but now there wasn't even that, he was too weak and too sick to try.

He heard Hannibal talking to Face in the next room and he went in to see what it was about; Hannibal was telling Face that one of them was going to have to take the van and go into town and get some more food and some medicine for Murdock, they needed a new bottle of pills for his fever.

"I'll go," B.A. told them, and Hannibal spun around in surprise because he hadn't realized the sergeant was in the room, "I owe Murdock that much anyway."

Hannibal took the last pills out of the bottle and gave the bottle to B.A. so he'd know what to get; B.A. pocketed the bottle and left the house to start the half hour trip back into town.

Murdock hadn't heard the van drive away but he seemed to know when B.A. had left, and he opened his eyes and told Jean, "You and the others should've gone with him."

"What're you talking about?" Jean asked.

Murdock peeled the wet cloth off of his head that they kept plastered on at all times except when it was being re-soaked in a bowl of ice water and he told Jean, "Decker's on his way and he's going to be here soon, I can just feel it, you better get Hannibal and Face out of here so Decker doesn't catch them."

Jean resisted saying he was delirious because she knew he'd heard enough of that kind of talk over the years, and also because she knew he couldn't imagine something like this. She grabbed his hand in hers and told him, "Nobody's going anywhere, and Decker is _not_ going to catch them, I promise you that, Murdock."

Murdock felt sorry for Jean, he knew that she'd been trying to keep herself pulled together today and was hanging on only by a thread, and it was just about to snap under pressure. He kissed her hand and told her, "Everything will be alright, Saint, but you've got to get the others out of here and you have to go with them."

Jean felt the tears stinging her eyes but she ignored them as she shook her head and told Murdock, "I'm not going to let them get you."

He looked up at her and said quietly but firmly, "Then you know what you have to do."

Jean didn't answer him, she just reached over to his jacket and pulled his gun out of the inside pocket. As she pulled her hand back, Murdock grabbed her wrist weakly to get her attention, and he told her, "Jean…no matter what happens, I love you."

She didn't reply to that, she only looked down at the gun in her hand and pondered what she had to do next.

* * *

Decker had seen the van leave, and he had seen that only Baracus was in the van, meaning that Smith and Peck were still inside. It didn't matter to him that he wouldn't be getting all of the A-Team at the same time because what he was about to confirm was something bigger at the moment than even the staff sergeant.

Hannibal and Face were in the living room and had discussed Murdock's current condition and that was how Decker was able to get the drop on them. He kicked in the door and entered with his gun drawn and aimed right at Hannibal; neither man moved and it was obvious they had _not_ anticipated this, he had truly caught them with their guard down.

"Hello, Decker," Hannibal said flatly, "Nice of you to drop in, but we're not taking any visitors today, would you care to make an appointment for next week?"

"You can save it, Smith," Decker told him, "Your little game is up."

Hannibal turned to Face and said, "I wasn't aware we were playing a game, were you, Lieutenant?"

"Nobody told me," Face replied innocently.

"Oh shut up," Decker told him, Face did a double take at that but otherwise didn't move, "It all ends here, Smith, for you, Peck, _and_, your fourth member."

"Fourth?" Face repeated.

Hannibal folded his arms and said, "I guess you don't read too well, Decker, if you've been following the stories about us in the paper, you'd know there are only three of us."

"I'm not an idiot, Smith, I know that you couldn't possibly have pulled off all your missions with only three people, especially considering you don't fly," Decker said, and he saw the closed door leading to the bedroom and nodded, "He's in there, isn't he?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Decker," Hannibal insisted, "There's nobody in there."

Decker ignored Hannibal and marched past both he and Face and went over to the bedroom door and kicked it in; he took one step into the room and froze, as did Hannibal and Face right behind him.

The first thing Decker had seen _was_ Murdock asleep in bed, the second thing Decker saw was Jean sitting by him in the rocking chair, and the _third_ thing Decker saw was the gun in Jean's hand that was pointed right for him.

"You take one more step, Decker, and I'll kill you," Jean told him quietly. She stood up, never moving the aim of her gun one bit, and she added, "Put your gun down, put your hands up and back out of here slowly…_all_ of you."

Hannibal and Face also put their hands up and backed away from the door, and Decker was finally starting to show evidence of possessing a brain because he did the same thing. Slowly the three men walked back into the living room with Jean following right behind Decker with the gun still on him; she closed the door behind her and once in the living room she looked at Decker and said, "The dummy always returns to the same place twice, isn't that it, Decker?"

"I might've guessed that you were somehow involved in all this," he said bluntly.

"Well you're close but you do not go to the head of the class," Jean told him, "Instead _you_ go to the back of the line."

Decker turned to Hannibal and said, "I always knew that Murdock was a part of this team and now I've got all the proof I need."

Jean laughed hysterically like Decker just said something funny, she lowered her gun for a second but quickly returned it to aim at him and she said, "Ooh Decker, you are the dumbest person I've ever encountered but you _do_ make me laugh…Murdock a part of the A-Team, now that's hilarious."

"Do you deny that's who's in that bedroom at this moment?" Decker asked her, forgetting about the gun aimed at him and leaning in towards her face.

"I deny nothing," she told him firmly, "But if you really think Murdock has anything to do with the team, then you're dumber than I had you pegged for. Murdock is _not_ here with _them,_ _I _am here with them as guest, and _he_ is here with _me_ because he's my husband."

"Your WHAT!"

Decker looked like he had just been punched in the gut and hit with a bucket of ice water, and the expressions on Face and Hannibal's faces were exactly the same with this sudden revelation.

"That's right, Decker," Jean smirked as she raised the aim of her gun a bit, "Murdock and I are married." With her other hand she reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and took out a folded piece of paper, "And _here_ is the license to prove it. Would you like me to read it to you or would you care to do the honors yourself?"

Hannibal wanted to rip the piece of paper out of her hands and see it for himself, to know that she was just putting them on and this was some joke. But he could tell from the unchanging look on Jean's face that it was no joke, she was telling the truth, and Hannibal felt himself falling down the rabbit hole.


	16. Chapter 16

Decker took the paper from Jean and opened it up and saw it was in fact a California marriage license, with her name and Murdock's on it. He checked the date and noted, "This is only a week old."

"Of course it is, dummy," Jean told him as she snatched it back from him, "You know that by law they don't let crazy people consent to marriage, otherwise we would've gotten hitched a long time ago."

Decker glared at her and said with full certainty, "Murdock has been instituted at the V.A. for over 10 years, as far as the law is concerned, he _is_ crazy."

"Wrong," Jean told him, "Wrong tense, the correct answer is _was_, he _was_ considered crazy, but not anymore." She pulled a second paper out of her jacket and handed it to Decker too and told him, "A certification of release of a patient recently found sane and competent by his doctors. And you can stare at that one until your eyeballs fall out, you'll see that it's the genuine article as well, you can take it to the V.A., the doctors will tell you that much."

Decker checked it as well and saw that she was right, and as far as he could tell, it _was_ real too. During this, Hannibal and Face looked at each other and said nothing, but each was wondering the same things; what the hell was going on, and whose idea was this?

"As I said, Decker, Murdock is not here with _them_," she pointed to Face and Hannibal, "He's here with me because he doesn't like me traveling without him."

"And _what_ are _you_ doing here?" Decker wanted to know.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she remarked smugly, and laughed, "You actually think that Murdock is their pilot?" She about fell down laughing.

"And why is that so funny?" Decker wanted to know.

"Decker, Murdock may be sane, but he is shellshocked from crashing his plane back in Vietnam, he never recovered from that," Jean told him, "He hasn't flown since Vietnam, he's traumatized, every time he hears an airplane or a helicopter fly overhead, he screams and runs under the bed. He would _never_ be able to fly the A-Team anywhere. And I'll tell you something else, Roddy, if you intend to catch the whole A-Team and send them all to a military prison, you better get some more cells built."

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Since Murdock _isn't_ any use to them," Jean said, "They've had to go through channels to bring in _many_ pilots to fly them wherever they need to go, and if you want names I suggest you start checking the enlistment records for the Thunderbirds."

Decker did a double take, "What?"

"Come on, Decker, the Air Force trained Murdock before Vietnam, it helped make him what he was, it only makes sense they would seek similar talent from the same source when and where possible," Jean said, "As it stands there are about 20 different pilots who assist the A-Team, they all trade off, it helps keep people from getting too suspicious about who's flying them."

However, Decker wasn't buying it, and he wasn't amused, "You don't think I really believe that, do you?"

"I don't care if you believe it or not, what you think and what are, are two different things altogether," Jean told him, "And this is also where I come into this, I was recently brought in to be one of the new replacement pilots."

Decker almost laughed, "Now you don't think I'm stupid enough to believe _you_ were in the Thunderbirds do you?"

Jean returned a Cheshire cat grin and told him, "Well you've got me there, Decker, because I was never licensed to fly. That's another small step to avoid drawing too much attention. I can tell that you don't believe me, so I'll be very happy to prove it to you."

"How?" he asked.

Jean nodded toward the window, "There's a copter out there, I'll prove that I'm the new pilot if you've got the nerve for a little scenic flight…"

Face looked at Hannibal and though he couldn't say anything without blowing this story, he wondered just how far this was going to go, and _where_ it was going. They all waited to see what Decker's response was and he finally answered, "Alright, we'll go…" he pointed at Hannibal and Face, "But they're coming along for the ride. I wouldn't put it past you to kill us both just for the sake of getting me _into_ a death trap, but even you wouldn't be stupid enough to try that with two members of the A-Team onboard with us."

Jean shrugged and said, "If that's what'll make you happy, that's fine, but it won't be anything new for any of us, follow me."

Face dragged behind to speak to Hannibal and before they followed Jean and Decker out the door, he turned to Hannibal said, "Hannibal…"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"We're going to die today," Face realized.

Hannibal nodded slowly, "I know it." He reached into his pocket and handed Face a cigar for one last smoke before they were killed in either the takeoff or the immediate crash that followed.

* * *

Face was relieved that when they'd gotten into the chopper, Decker sat in the cockpit with Jean and he and Hannibal were in the back; Decker was too busy watching the view through the windshield to turn around and see that Face couldn't stand to watch this. He knew they were going to die today, and he couldn't believe that Jean would go to a length like this just to convince Decker that Murdock was not their pilot. He thought back to all the times he had ridden in helicopters before, how many times had he heard the noise of the blades spinning around and never given it a second thought? This time when the rotor started up, it was like he was listening to the sound of his doom.

Hannibal kept one reassuring hand gripped on Face's shoulder. He hadn't paid attention to how high they went, instead he had watched Jean at the controls; true she didn't have the finesse Murdock did, but she actually seemed to know what she was doing, and he couldn't figure it out. He noted that she made sure her grip on the cyclic stick was not white knuckled, though he could also tell she was holding it tightly enough that she would've preferred it that way.

"Tell me something, Decker," Jean said, "Do you fly much?"

"No I do not," he answered bluntly.

"Ah, then I guess you're not used to all the bumpy air that one encounters on such flights," Jean said, and Hannibal got the idea that she was leading up to something, "You realize of course that flying is a very temperamental thing, especially if the wind ever picks up…if and when that happens, well, anything is likely to happen."

Hannibal hadn't seen what she did but the next thing he knew, he was falling against Face and Face was falling against the right side of the helicopter as the whole thing shifted to an angle on the side. Over the ruckus, Hannibal could hear Jean say something about sustaining injuries during a bumpy flight and he knew what she was getting at; while Decker paid attention to what was going on in the front, Hannibal got a syringe and a little bottle of B.A.'s night-night drink out and fixed it up. Then when Jean messed with the controls and sent them thrown to the side again, Hannibal jabbed Decker in the back of the neck; Decker yelped at the initial injection and reached behind to feel for what had bitten him, but after about a minute he succumbed to unconsciousness and slumped forward in his seat.

"Good work, Hannibal," Jean told him.

"Yeah, good thinking, kid, now how about getting us back down on the ground?" Hannibal asked.

"I will," she said, "But first we have to figure out what to do with Decker before he wakes up."

"Just take us down and we'll figure it out then!" Face told her.

"Incidentally," Hannibal leaned over to the cockpit and asked her, "Where _did_ you learn to fly?"

Jean looked back at him and answered, "From Murdock."

Face reached over and lightly shoved Hannibal to get his attention and when the colonel looked at him he asked, "Can I start screaming now?"

* * *

B.A. hadn't noticed right away that something was wrong when he came back from town, but as he pulled up to the house it occurred to him what had changed since he left; the helicopter that was standing out in the front yard, and had been standing there when he left was gone now. He looked up at the sky but didn't see anything, and he couldn't figure it out; Murdock was too sick to fly, but then who…he didn't even finish that thought. He ran into the house and checked the rooms to see if anyone was there, "Murdock? Hannibal?"

His only answer was a groan coming from the bedroom, he went in and saw Murdock sitting up in the bed covered in sweat and breathing hard and heavy.

"Murdock, you okay man?" B.A. asked as he went over to him.

Murdock huffed and puffed a couple more times before he seemed to recognize who was speaking to him and he said, "Yeah, B.A., I'm fine…what's going on?"

"Man I was about to ask you that," B.A. said, "The helicopter's gone and I can't find the others anywhere, I…hey wait a minute." Two thoughts hit him at once, first he felt Murdock's forehead and told him, "Hey man I think your fever finally broke."

"That would be nice," Murdock said as he tried to get up, "Now I need to get a shower, I smell like it did."

Then the second thought occurred to B.A., "Hey Murdock, if you's here then who's flying the helicopter?"

Murdock shrugged and said, "I don't know, I don't even know what time it is, the last thing I remember was falling asleep with everybody standing around me."

Murdock tried to stand up but he was weak, so B.A. helped keep him steady as he made the short trip from the bedroom into the bathroom. He went over to the shower which looked like it hadn't had someone use _or_ clean it for quite a while; the water was ice cold and there was hardly any soap, but it was still a relief after laying in bed all day cooking in his own juices. After he got out of the shower and got dressed again, he found out the hard way he wasn't out of the woods yet and still needed to be in bed and off of his feet so everything didn't start spinning.

"Hey B.A.," he said weakly with a small smirk on his face, "Thanks for coming back."

"Where else would I go, man?" B.A. replied as he got Murdock to swallow a couple more pills, "We gotta wait and get you well and then get you out of here, before we can go anywhere."

Murdock closed his eyes and laid his head against the pillows and tiredly murmured, "I really appreciate it, big guy." And within a couple of minutes he was out like a light again.

B.A. got Murdock tucked in and put the wet cloth back on his forehead and headed into the kitchen to put the food away when he heard the front door open and heard Hannibal and Face's voices. The sight he saw when they came in was nothing short of hysterical; Face was hunched over and walking with his knees bent so much he was practically scooting on them.

"Hey man, didn't you use to be taller?" he laughed.

"Ha ha, B.A., very funny," Face dryly remarked.

"I _said_ I was sorry," Jean told him, "I told you landing is not my area of expertise."

Hannibal came in behind Jean and up to this point he had remained his usual good humored self, but he snagged Jean by the back of her jacket and told her, "Get back here you, I'm not done yelling at you yet." Of course he hadn't yelled at her at all yet but he didn't see any reason to point that out.

"B.A., is Murdock alright?" Jean asked as she pulled loose from Hannibal.

"Yeah he's doing better," B.A. answered, "Where've you guys been?"

"B.A., you should've seen it, it was great," Jean tried to get her word in first before the others did.

"Seen what?" he asked.

"B.A.," Face cut in, "You are not going to believe what we found out."

"Believe what?" B.A. asked, "Somebody better start telling me something, man."

"Decker showed up after you left," Hannibal said, "And during the process of removing him from the premises we found out a couple of disturbing things. First of all, Murdock has been teaching Jean to fly a helicopter."

"And that's how we got out of here with Decker," Face explained.

"And dropped him off elsewhere before returning and making a _rough_ landing," Hannibal added, "And the other thing we found out is that Murdock is married."

"To what?" B.A. asked.

Face and Hannibal pointed at Jean and Face answered, "That."

"Oh man," B.A. made it clear he was not hot on this idea at all.

"And now that Decker's gone," Hannibal told Jean, "I want some answers."

Jean put her hands on her hips and looked at him defiantly, "What do you want to know?"

"Are you and Murdock _really_ married?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered without missing a beat, "Face might be able to get these papers printed up someplace but I can't, we had to spring for the genuine articles."

Okay, that one wasn't so hard, now came the next question, "When did this happen?"

"Last week," Jean answered, "When you went to see your new client, and I said I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out. First we went to the V.A. so Murdock could get discharged…"

"Wait a minute," Face said, "Wait one minute, _how_ did Murdock get discharged?"

"He took the head shrinkers' tests again and he passed them this time," she answered, "It's as simple as that."

Face laughed and shook his head, "With Murdock, nothing is simple."

"Well this was," she told him, "Once we got done there, we called the house and nobody answered, so we knew you guys hadn't come back yet, and after that it was starting to get late so we found a judge and had him marry us, it's all very simple."

Face felt like he'd been hit over the head with a ton of bricks, this was too much information for him to take in in such a short period of time.

"I suppose your next question is _why_ we got married," Jean said to Hannibal, "Well you can relax on that one. There was more chemistry going on between Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand than there is between Murdock and I, this was a marriage of convenience, not built on romance."

"I don't get it," Face spoke up.

"You've heard of marital privilege? Well we discussed it and decided to take it a step further," Jean told them.

Hannibal was putting the pieces together, "That whole story you told Decker about Murdock was not here because he's part of the team, but he was here because you were here, that _you_ are his connection to us because you're our pilot."

"One of your pilots," Jean corrected him, "Yes, you could say that we've been planning this for some time. When Murdock started taking me out to teach me to fly the choppers I couldn't figure out why he was doing it, he kept talking about if anything would ever happen again like what happened on the Beller Air jet and he couldn't fly, you would need somebody else who could. That's when he and I started putting this whole thing together. It might not make much sense to you, Hannibal, but it's a very long story and I am _not_ in the mood to take the long way around on it. The bottom line is what was done was done to protect Murdock, Decker found him, he saw Murdock was here with you, that blows his cover, but if he's here because he's married to me, it doesn't matter what Decker _thinks_ or even _knows _unless he can prove it, and with my story he can't. We have the paperwork to prove that Murdock is sane and he got released so he could marry me, it's all technical but it does point the arrow somewhere else than at the three of you; and that is all that the army needs to see to know that Decker has nothing to prove Murdock's involvement here."

Nobody knew what to say to that for a minute; Hannibal looked at the others and he had to admit, "It's unusual, it's unconventional, to this extent it's practically unheard of, but it just might work." He looked at Jean and asked her, "But are you _sure_ that Murdock knows what this is?"

She nodded, "He knows, Hannibal, this is just a form of protection to keep him from becoming a wanted fugitive too."

"Why didn't you tell us about it _when_ you got married?" Face wanted to know.

"Did you see the look on Decker's face when I told him?" she asked, "You two looked exactly the same way, Decker can't possibly attribute this one to being just one of Hannibal's crazy plans because it's clear Hannibal had no idea what was going on."

"Yeah but Decker knows that Murdock was our pilot back in Vietnam," Face told her.

"Certainly he does, but what does that prove? In 10 years none of you have ever been to visit him at the V.A., your names are not on any visitor's log, and nobody there would recognize you as being Lieutenant Peck, or Colonel Smith, he was your pilot but as far as the army knows you guys are _not_ friends, you're _not_ still working together and that's the same idea here," Jean said.

She could tell that Hannibal still did not appear to be fully convinced about this and she told him, "Don't get the wrong idea, Hannibal, I didn't marry Murdock with any delusions of interfering with any of your plans, I know what the score is; Murdock can't stay with me and I can't go with you, I know that, I accept that, all I'm doing is trying to keep Murdock in the clear so _he_ at least can come and go as he pleases without the army hunting for him. I don't know if it'll work in the long run, but it'll work for now, at least now he has a cover that does _not_ leave him to rot in that hospital for the rest of his days, it's no wonder he _would_ rather be hunted with the rest of you, at least you can go out in public and actually have a life, no matter how much Decker interrupts it."

Jean started to walk away but Hannibal stopped her and he said to her, "I'm only going to ask you this once and I want an honest answer. _Do_ you love Murdock?"

She pulled her arm away from him and said, "You know what the answer is, you know how I feel about him, of course I love him, as hard as you might find it to believe, Hannibal, I love all of you, you're the only friends I have, and maybe I do Murdock the most because he understands me better than anyone else ever did or even could," she shook her head grimly, "But this isn't about that." She walked out of the room and headed over to Murdock's bedroom to see how he was doing.

Face waited until he heard the door close and he asked Hannibal, "You think she's telling the truth?"

"If not," Hannibal turned to the lieutenant, "She deserves the actor's lifetime achievement award, Laurence Olivier couldn't have done a better performance."

"I still can't believe it, Hannibal," B.A. told him, "Her, and Murdock, married?" the look on his face as he pondered that thought was nothing short of hilarious, he shook his head and growled lowly in response to the very idea.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I heard it either," Hannibal agreed, "And it's not much easier the second time around. Hopefully when Murdock wakes up he can fill us in on some of the details she conveniently left out."

* * *

Jean went over to the bed and gently put her hand on Murdock's shoulder to wake him up, "Murdock, how're you feeling?"

He opened his eyes and smiled up at her, "Hey Saint…I'm doing fine, how 'bout you?"

"We got rid of Decker," she said as she sat on the bed beside him.

"Good," Murdock grinned as he closed his eyes again, "What'd you do with him?"

"We flew him over the state line, stole his clothes and ID and Hannibal conveniently left him in his jockey shorts in a crowded bar where a big fight was breaking out, so 15 minutes later the cops came in and busted it up, and by now he's either in the drunk tank at the local jail, or…propped up in the corner as a coat rack," Jean explained.

Murdock weakly laughed and said, "Good, it's better than he deserves, how did the solo flight go?"

"Not too well," she confessed, "I got us down alright the first time but when we got back here we hit the ground kind of hard."

"Oh well," Murdock said as he turned on his side, "There's always next time."

"Murdock," Jean was going to tell Murdock that they'd been found out, that Hannibal and Face knew their secret, because she wasn't sure in his current condition he could put both things together.

"Hmmm?" he asked as he tried turning back over.

She decided against it, the bad news would wait until he was feeling better and could take it. "I love you too," she said as she leaned over and kissed him.

Murdock had a big grin on his face now and was making some kind of sound through his throat, "Thank you, Saint, that sure is nice."

Jean peeled the washcloth off his head and rinsed it the bowl on the nightstand, wrung it out and put it back into place; but Murdock was too far gone in sleep and delirium to notice it. Jean looked over at Murdock and saw that for the first time since yesterday, he seemed to be resting peacefully, and she pulled back the covers on her side of the bed and slipped in beside him and fell asleep laying next to him. Hannibal was walking past the bedroom when he looked in and saw the two sleeping side by side and he went in and pulled the covers up on both of them, and left the room so they could rest for the time being. He decided there would be plenty of time later to find out what the whole story was.

* * *

Jean slept for four hours beside Murdock, and probably would've slept longer if Hannibal would've let her. As it was, it was going on six o' clock and he decided she ought to get up for dinner, and he figured maybe getting her up and walking her around would help knock the sleep out of her. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to the edge and pulled her to her feet, but she was still out of it for the better part, so he walked her around the bed a few times before taking a detour through the bathroom where once they stopped moving, Jean folded her arms and laid her head on the edge of the sink, which Hannibal found the perfect place to turn on the tap and pour a little cold water on her. That did the trick and she was up and alert now.

"What happened?" she asked.

Hannibal chuckled a bit as he turned the faucet off and handed her a towel, "Sorry kid, but you about slept through dinner."

"Is Murdock alright?" Jean asked as she ran the towel over the hair on the back of her head.

"Yeah he's doing fine, his fever's going down," he explained, "He'll probably sleep through the rest of the night and then be up and getting back to his usual self by tomorrow."

"Thank God," Jean said tiredly.

Hannibal felt a bit like he was walking on eggshells because there was something neither of them was willing to discuss at this time, and if Jean brought it up they _would_ deal with it here and now, but he was willing to wait; and, he had made it clear to Face and B.A. that regardless of what anybody was thinking, they were still all adults and were going to act as such and for the meantime nobody was to say one word to Jean about the bombshell she had dropped on them. He wanted to wait until Murdock was well enough to explain his own part in this because he had a good idea that Murdock had been far more than just a merely willing party. However if he was going to point at Murdock as a full coconspirator in the whole mess, he wanted to hear it from the man's own mouth.

Jean went with Hannibal into the kitchen where B.A. and Face were at the table and had already finished eating; B.A. had pushed his chair back and Face had tilted his back and crossed his feet over one another. If Jean had been more observant she would've noticed that both men were deliberately trying hard _not_ to bring up what was clearly on their minds, but she didn't pay them any attention and just ate the food that had been dished up for her. In all this had been a terrible day and the night wasn't looking much better, everybody just hoped that tomorrow would be a different story altogether.

* * *

The next morning everybody was up early, and Hannibal was relieved to find that this included Murdock, who was still a big groggy and disoriented but seemed a lot more like his old self today than the day before. "How're you feeling, Murdock?"

"Hungry, Colonel," Murdock answered as he started chewing on the corner of the bed sheet, "I'm so hungry I could eat this mattress, I…" he noticed the odd way that Hannibal was looking at him, though it was obvious Hannibal wasn't aware he was doing it, and Murdock knew it wasn't just because he was trying to eat the bedding.

"Well it's to be expected," Hannibal told him, "You didn't eat anything yesterday."

"Yeah I guess I didn't, I…" a light bulb went off, "Hannibal…Jean told you, didn't she?"

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, Murdock, she did."

Here they went. Murdock pushed the sheets back and got up and said, "Hannibal, I don't want you getting mad at her about this."

"I'm not mad at anybody, Murdock," Hannibal assured him, "But I _am_ a bit confused, you see Jean told us part of the story, but not enough that we could get the whole picture on this, I was hoping you could fill me in on the rest."

"Well I'll try," Murdock told him, "I'll try, Colonel, but you know with my intermittent memory loss I can't be too dependable."

"Well I'm sure you'll prove a lot more helpful than Jean did, I got a feeling she would've rather faced a firing squad than tell us about you two getting married," Hannibal said.

Face heard them talking and he came into the bedroom and asked Murdock, "What's the big idea of you getting married and you don't even invite us, your best friends?"

Murdock glanced back and forth at the two men and said, "Well I would've liked to, believe me I did, I wanted all of you guys to be there, but…it's just that we were in a hurry and when you guys weren't home we figured it would be the best time to do it."

"Whose idea was it to get married?" Hannibal inquired.

"Uh…well, I guess it was both of ours," Murdock answered.

"I see," Hannibal leaned over towards Murdock and half murmured, "She's not pregnant, is she?"

Murdock looked like Hannibal was truly the crazy one, his eyes were wide and the expression on his face was priceless, a second later he recovered and insisted, "Oh, no! No! Nothing like that, Colonel."

"Well that's alright then," Hannibal told him, "Though personally I wouldn't care too much either way, I'd like to have some grandchildren _sometime_ before I die and you know the only way that can happen is through you boys."

Now it was Face's turn to look at Hannibal like he'd lost his mind. "You seem to be taking this awfully well, Hannibal, all things considered."

"That's probably because I don't know the whole story yet," Hannibal said, "I'm hoping Murdock can fill us in on the rest…when exactly did this whole thing start?"

"Uh, well…" Murdock wracked his brain and said, "I guess it was a week before you came to bust me out of the V.A. again." He started to tell them about the night Jean came to see him and broke into his room, and told them about what had happened the next morning.

* * *

Murdock had planned to get up and get Jean out of his room before the nurses made the wakeup calls but he hadn't and they were both rudely awakened when they heard the door open and one of the young nurses came in and started to say 'Good morning' but halfway through it became a scream at what she saw.

"What is it?" Murdock asked as he sat up in bed, then he realized that Jean was in bed with him and he was as surprised as the nurse, "Oh!"

The nurse was a woman in her mid twenties who looked like this was the worst possible thing that could've happened and for a moment she was at a loss for words, then she thought of some and asked Murdock what was going on. He himself hadn't had time to think of something to tell her, but apparently Jean had come with a story planned incase they got caught. She pushed herself up from the bed and went over to the nurse, shook her hand and said, "Jean Rhodes, nice to meet you, I don't suppose Murdock's told you about me, I'm his girlfriend."

The nurse called in another nurse who was older and had seniority and more experience on the job, but she too was at a loss here and called in the doctor. That was Jean's introduction to Dr. Richter, and she made it clear without saying a word that she did not like this man.

"Murdock," Richter turned to him, "Would you care to explain what's going on here?"

"He can't," Jean said, "This isn't Murdock's fault, it's mine, I'm the one who busted in here last night to see him."

"And you are?" he asked.

"Jean Rhodes, I already told the nurse that, I'm his girlfriend," Jean said.

That was enough to even make Dr. Richter, who had seen his share of crazy people and ridiculous antics, do a double take, and take one step back from her when she said that. "I see…" he took in her attire which was an extra pair of Murdock's pajamas and he made the suggestion that they both get dressed and then see him in his office. Murdock and Jean both headed to the bathroom to dress but the doctor stopped Murdock and suggested _he_ get dressed out here.

"Aw Doc," Murdock said, "Not in front of them," he pointed to the nurses.

"No, they'll leave the room," he answered, and they did, if somewhat reluctantly.

"And you, Doc?" Murdock asked.

"Murdock, we've been over this before," Richter patiently explained.

"I know but I don't, I can't…would you turn around please?" he asked.

"Certainly," Dr. Richter said.

"And close your eyes," Murdock added.

"Of course."

"And put your fingers in your ears," Murdock told him.

Dr. Richter couldn't help turning back around at that one and looking at Murdock oddly, but he did as he was asked while Murdock got dressed.

On the way to Dr. Richter's office, Jean leaned over towards Murdock and said to him, "I feel like we're being sent to the principal's office."

"Oh great, now we're not going to be able to graduate either," he pouted.

They sat down by the doctor's desk and he asked for Murdock to explain what was going on.

"Uh well," he couldn't think of anyway to explain this one so he just decided to use what Jean had already given him and play the rest of it by ear, "This is my girlfriend, Jean."

Jean raised her palm and said, "I never shake hands, Doctor, people's hands have germs on them."

The doctor turned his attention to her and asked, "Where are you from, Jean?"

"I come from New York," she said, "But I moved out here a while back, I work in Hollywood as a stuntman, you can verify that with the studio if you don't believe me."

"I didn't say I don't believe you," he calmly told her.

"Yeah," she said, "But you didn't say you did believe me either."

"How long have you known Murdock?" he asked.

"About two years," Jean said, "We met at a movie theater waiting in the lobby to see E.T."

"Is that right, Murdock?" Dr. Richter asked.

"Yeah," he said, "You remember the time I jumped over the hedges and got away on the back of a garbage truck? That's when that happened."

Murdock realized what a gateway Jean had opened up, he was able to justify all of his attempted and succeeded escapes from the V.A. to coincide with his going to see her.

"Murdock, why didn't you tell anyone at the hospital before that you did have a girlfriend, and that that was why you were always running away?" Dr. Richter asked.

"Well her family is kind of old fashioned and I wanted to protect her reputation," he answered.

Jean turned and glared at him and she told him, "My reputation is fine, thank you," and she tilted her head back and slammed her forehead against the top of his head and made him yelp in pain. She turned to the doctor who looked very confused by what she had done and she explained, "I hear that's the way the Eskimos do it."

"What can I tell you, Doc?" Murdock asked as he rubbed his sore head, "You have to be crazy about her."

"I think I can see that," Dr. Richter replied, then he turned his attention to Jean and asked her, "How old are you, Jean?"

"Old enough, how old are you?" she asked.

He might've anticipated that one, but he tried again and this time she answered, "I'm 24 years old, and what the hell has that got to do with anything?"

"That means that you two met when you were 22, correct?" he asked.

"Oh you're a regular math genius, ain't you, doc?" Jean asked.

Murdock started to squirm in his chair and felt an insatiable urge to make himself as small as possible and disappear; he curled into a ball on the chair and pulled his cap down over his eyes as this continued for the next few minutes. Every time Dr. Richter asked Jean a question she threw it back at him and wanted his own personal answer instead. After a while Murdock lifted up the bill of his cap so he could see the doctor and said, "As you can see, she's very opinionated. I guess that's why I'm so crazy about her." He tried to smile but Murdock couldn't tell if by the time this was over, they would discharge him, or have Jean committed.

"Look, Doc," Jean decided to cut to the chase, "I'm sure you can understand our predicament. We want to get married, but the law doesn't let crazy people get married, so we need you to run whatever tests you have to decide if somebody's sane or not _on_ Murdock again and find him sane this time."

"That is not solely up to us," Dr. Richter told her, "It's also up to Murdock, if he shows improvement on the tests next time, and convinces us that he is recovered enough to exist in the outside world, then we can discharge him."

"Come on, Doc, he's been here for 10 years, don't you think he wants to get out?" Jean asked, "Now I know why he never brought me back to his place, how many suicides do you have in this nuthouse?"

"Jean!" Murdock exclaimed.

But she ignored him, "All people do in this place is rot away, and you can say anything you want about rehabilitation and helping the patients to cope, but that's exactly what it is and I can see it in Murdock too, he's rotting away in this place, he needs to get out of here. Don't you think he _wants_ to get out of here, and have a life? Did you ever think to ask him if he wants to get married and have a family someday? Or were you too busy asking him what a bunch of spilled ink looks like?"

Murdock buried his face in his hands and only watched through his fingers, there was no way they were going to let him out of here after this one. When Jean had finished reading Richter the riot act, Murdock put his hands down and the only thing he could think to say was, "What can I say, Doc? Cupid must've thrown away his bow and arrow and beat me over the head with a sledgehammer when I met this one."

Murdock liked Doctor Richter, he'd had his fair share of psychiatrists during his stay here and some of them didn't last too long, in fact he'd had one that shot himself right before Murdock was supposed to have his second meeting with him. Jean was right, a lot of the guys here _couldn't_ deal with the day to day life of the hospital anymore and they did kill themselves. It was something he tried not to think about, fortunately most of the ones who did weren't ones he had been too well acquainted with. But Dr. Richter, Murdock didn't know what it was but the man seemed to actually get him, or at least he tried and that counted for a lot.

Fate must've been on their side because Richter smiled at them and told Murdock he could tell that the two of them were very much in love, and if Murdock was willing, they _would_ do the tests again and see if this time he showed enough progress that he could be released.

"Oh thank you, doc, you don't know how much that means to us," Jean told him as she stood up to leave.

* * *

When they left his office, Jean was escorted to the main exit, and after a while the word got around the hospital about what had happened and now when the nurses saw Murdock, he noticed they all looked like a litter of cats that swallowed a pet shop full of canaries. Well, overall that went a lot better than he would've figured.

And now it was back to seeing a whole slew of different kinds of doctors who all asked him different questions and played all sorts of mind games with him to see if he was anymore fit now to leave the hospital than he had been the last time or the time before or the time before. He wouldn't get the final results until Dr. Richter saw him again but he got the feeling that all was going well; he had just about finished going through all the tests again when Face came to stay with him, and he'd broken out very close to becoming a free, sane man. Once they were back at Jean's house he'd told her about this, and they decided the next time that the other three were gone for a while, the two of them would head back to the hospital so he could finish once and for all.

She'd insisted on going in with him, and he was glad for the company; he'd done these things dozens of times before but this time everything was riding on the final result, he had to get it right. When they walked into Dr. Richter's office, the doctor looked surprised but not quite surprised to see him.

"Hi Doc," he said nervously.

"Hello, Murdock," he said calmly, "I see that you came back again."

"Can you blame the guy for getting cold feet?" Jean asked the doctor, "If he says something wrong you're just going to keep him locked up in this booby hatch for the rest of his days, why shouldn't he be nervous?"

The doctor ignored her and focused on Murdock and asked him, "Do I need to guess where you've been the last few days?"

Murdock pointed at Jean and answered, "We're more used to going back to her place instead of her coming here."

"You're almost finished here, Murdock," Dr. Richter told him, "You just need to answer a few more questions and then we can make our final diagnosis. Are you ready?"

He was but he suddenly found that he couldn't move; he felt like his feet had been glued to the floor. Jean and Richter both had to grab a side and help him over to a chair.

"It's not ink blots is it, Doc? No, no, don't tell me, that'll only make it worse," he said.

"Just calm down, Murdock," Dr. Richter told him, "This will all be over with soon enough."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he admitted.

Dr. Richter turned to Jean and before he could say anything, she made it clear, "I'm staying."

"That's fine," he told her, "You stay over there, and I'm going to ask Murdock a few questions."

Jean stayed back by the door, and though Murdock knew there wasn't anything she could do to help him now, he wished that she'd come up closer to the desk, like she might actually be able to help if he got stuck on a question. But he knew it was all coming down to this and it was on him to give the doctor the answers he wanted to hear.

"Are you ready, Murdock?" he asked.

Murdock nodded, "Yeah, go ahead, Doc."

"Alright, the first question…what's today, Murdock?"

He stopped to think, he didn't want to say the wrong thing right off the bat. "Wednesday."

"Very good," Richter told him, "What's the date?"

"The 12th."

"Murdock, who's the president of the United States right now?"

"Ronnie Reagan," he answered.

"What is 8 plus 13?"

Murdock thought about it for a minute to make sure he didn't slip and say the wrong number, "21."

"What state are we in?"

"California, the most unnatural state in the world," Murdock answered.

"And who's the woman you're going to marry?" Dr. Richter asked.

"Jean Rhodes."

The good doctor smiled at him and said, "Very good, Murdock. I've seen you day in and day out in this place for ten years, I've seen you do some pretty remarkable things, though I haven't always known the reasons why. But I think that you've finally recovered enough that, I see no reason why you shouldn't be released by this afternoon. It'll give you time to get your things cleared out of your room."

Murdock felt his jaw drop and he wanted to do the same thing out of his chair. Jean looked like she didn't know whether to kiss the doctor or kick him, "That was it? That's all you needed to do to decide that he's cured?"

"Miss Rhodes, mental health is not a matter of being cured or uncured, it is a matter of recognizing disorders, their causes, their reasons for existing in the present time, and learning to cope with the trauma both inflicted and suffered, to move on and return to a life outside of the hospital. Normality is a relative term, it really means nothing, what matters is one's ability to survive in the world," he smiled at his prize patient and reached over to squeeze Murdock's shoulder proudly, "I believe Murdock has regained that ability now."

For a moment, Murdock didn't have any idea what to say. He practically climbed over the desk to grab the doctor and he shook both the man's hands furiously and told him repeatedly, "Thank you, Doctor Richter, you don't know what this means to me."

"I can guess, Murdock," he chuckled, "I'm sure you two will be very happy together."

"You have no idea," Jean stated matter-of-factly.

Murdock was practically floating as they ran out of the doctor's office and down the hall. He ran and dragged Jean along behind him, screaming ecstatically and it brought all the nurses out of the other rooms to see what was going on. His ramblings were coherent enough for everyone to get the basic message and all the nurses applauded and congratulated him as he ran past them. He slowed down enough to grab a few nurses' hands and thank them before he followed Jean down the corridor.

He returned to his room and got everything he would be able to carry out packed up and loaded up and hugged the bigger items goodbye and bid them farewell. He ran around the room once grabbing things and talking to them and telling them goodbye, and when he came around full circle he grabbed Jean who had gotten in his way and jumped up and down squealing in delight at finally being released.

"Thank you for coming down here and helping me with this," he told her as he hugged her tightly, "I don't think I would've been able to do it without you."

Jean pulled back from him and told him, "Murdock, you know you could've passed their tests any time you wanted to, you didn't need my help."

"Well we need to celebrate," he told her, and resumed running around the room grabbing his things, "We need to get out of here and go someplace and drink champagne and…"

Jean grabbed the back of his jacket to get his attention and she told him, "We're going to, remember we're getting married later?"

"Oh that's right! I forgot," Murdock told her, "Wow, released and married in one day, it's going to be hard to top this! Oh wait, wait!"

"What is it now?" she asked.

"I don't have a suit to wear to the wedding," he said.

"Murdock, you see this?" Jean pointed to her mohawk, "I doubt anybody's going to care if you're not dressed formally."

Once all the paperwork was taken care of, Murdock bid all the nurses and the other patients in the hospital's corridor adieu and told them he would not be returning this time; half of them cheered for him as they ran out of there. They ran down the front steps and out to the street where Jean's car was parked and when they stopped running, Jean started to say something but was cut off when Murdock wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off the ground and kissed her. When he finally put her down and pulled back, Jean looked at him with a stunned expression but he was too excited to notice it.

"Now where're we going?" he asked her.

"First we're going to find a phone and see if the others are back at the house yet," Jean said, "If they aren't, then we go on ahead and get married."

A second wave of enthusiasm washed over Murdock and he was howling with glee and marching around like he'd just scored the winning touchdown in a football game.

"Come on, Murdock, let's go," Jean said as she went around to the driver's side.

"I'm coming!" he pulled the release form out of his pocket and looked at it again just to make sure that it was real this time. He looked back at the V.A. building, blew a kiss goodbye to it and jumped over the door on his side of the car and got in.


	17. Chapter 17

After they left the V.A., Jean stopped the car at a corner where there was a payphone and she called the house; it rang and rang but there was no answer. She asked Murdock if Hannibal would leave the phone to ring, and Murdock pointed out since it was her house he might, but if they were wondering where she and he were, then he'd answer.

"Then we'll assume they're not home," she said as she hung up.

It was late in the afternoon now and they decided to stop somewhere and get dinner, and they decided given the events of the day, they were going to stop in at someplace where the food would be worth it to celebrate. They found a restaurant that certainly looked fancy enough, though they were still able to get in despite their current appearances. Murdock was still overwhelmed with the fact that he was now a certifiably sane person, that no matter what he did, they couldn't send him back to the hospital; he took advantage of this and got acquainted with every waiter they passed, grabbing them to shake their hands or talk to them and introduce himself, and he'd made his way through about ten of them before they finally got to a table.

"Remember, we're not in the clear just yet," Jean told him, "We should be safe because the others aren't with us right now, but after tonight it's not going to matter because if anybody ever asks, you're with me."

"There are certainly worse things in the world to be," Murdock joked.

They lifted their water glasses and clanked them together in a toast to his release. They enjoyed a dinner of well done steaks with baked potatoes and tossed salad; and Murdock flashed on a year ago when they had a similar time at a restaurant, and that was when they found out it was her birthday, a celebration cut short when Lynch and the MPs stormed the place. That had been one hell of a birthday, and he considered this to be one hell of a day for a wedding. After dinner they got back in Jean's car though Murdock insisted on driving this time. Jean told him the address of a judge that she had looked up and figured it was early enough that they shouldn't have to worry about getting him out of bed. Murdock started off in that direction but about halfway from the house he turned off onto another road and pulled up outside of a bar.

"What're we doing here?" Jean asked.

"I think a drink is in order before we go through with this," he told her, "Come on."

Neither had said anything about it but now that they were nearing zero hour, Murdock could feel knots building up in his stomach about actually going forward with getting married and he was sure Jean was feeling the same way. They went up to the bar and he ordered them two glasses of champagne, he told Jean, "I would've preferred something stronger but I think we're probably going to be half lit as it is when we do this."

As they waited on their drinks, he saw Jean was wringing her hands and used one to hold the other in a death grip. He knew what they both knew, they had agreed that no matter what happened, they _were_ going to do this and nothing was going to stop that. They knew what this was and the reason _why_ it was being done, and Murdock supposed that made it easier than if this was supposed to be an actual wedding; all the same the tension was running so high at the moment that he could feel it looming over them. They had both agreed on this, it would be a _legal_ marriage, but not a _real_ one, and though Murdock had accepted that, he wasn't sure he liked it; somehow he got the idea that something more was supposed to come out of it than this.

They would have a simple ceremony and say their parts, he does, she does, that's it, but there would be no till death did they part, no for richer or poorer, in sickness and health. Not that he supposed it mattered much anyway because anytime they _would_ be together those things would _still_ apply, but still…he gazed over at the woman he was going to marry tonight, this was going to be the first time either of them were married, he couldn't shake the feeling that there should be more to it than this even if it was just a legalized sham. Maybe he was the one that was old fashioned, but he couldn't get rid of the feeling that despite the easygoing approach that was taken to this marriage, that as the husband he would still have some customary responsibilities that he owed to Jean, whether she would admit it or not.

When they got their drinks he picked up his glass and told her, "Well, here's to the merry-go-round."

Jean smiled weakly and said, "Get on and never get off."

He smiled at her, "You saw that movie too, eh?"

"I preferred the remake, The Bride Came C.O.D., though whoever thought they should pair James Cagney up with that bug eyed Davis woman," she shook her head.

"Oh yeah?" Murdock asked, and bumped his forehead against her head in acknowledgement and said, "I hear that's the way the Eskimos do it."

They drank their champagne and got back in the car and Murdock drove them up to the judge's house. They knocked at the door and a man in his 60s answered and after a few minutes explaining what was going on, he had them come in. They were sure they must've been quite a sight for the old judge; a man who was nearing 40 and who looked close to it when he didn't wear his baseball cap, and a woman nearly half his age with all the hair cut off the sides of her head, both dressed in jeans and T-shirts coming to get married. They noticed how fancy the house was and both kept close to each other and away from everything else; they were led into a parlor and after the judge rounded a couple of people up to be the witnesses, he began the ceremony.

"Do you, Howling Mad Murdock, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," he said.

He turned to Jean and asked her, "Do you, Jean Rhodes, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," she said.

"Now for the ring."

Murdock's eyes widened, the ring? Jean came to his aid and answered simply, "We don't have any."

The judge looked at them and repeated, "Don't have any?"

"That's right."

He grumbled something to himself and added, "Wouldn't be the first time. No matter, by the power vested in me by the state of California, I now pronounce you man and wife," he turned to Murdock and told him, "You may now kiss the bride."

Murdock felt the blood drain from his face; in the back of his mind he knew that was the ending to every wedding ceremony but it hadn't occurred to him that it would happen here. He saw the witnesses watching and he knew it had to be done, so he grabbed Jean and wrapped his arm high up over her shoulder and around the back of her head to conceal just how chaste it was. They got a little rice thrown at them and Murdock grabbed the judge's hands and shook them excitedly and thanked him for his service.

When it was all over they left the judge's house hand in hand and got back in Jean's car. Jean told Murdock to stop somewhere so she could call the house again and see if anybody was home yet; and if they were, she needed one hell of an excuse for them to be gone all this time. But luck was on their side and the phone just rang and rang again.

"Well, we're married, what do we do now?" she asked as she got back in the car with him.

"I've got an idea," he told her, "If anybody would remember seeing us, we might as well make it look convincing, right?"

With that in mind, they stopped first and got a chilled bottle of champagne and some glasses, and then Murdock drove them to one of the better looking motels in the area. He got them registered and when they were shown to their room, Murdock insisted on carrying Jean over the threshold in keeping with tradition. She held his suitcase in one hand and the champagne in the other, and he held her in his arms and walked her into the room and closed the door behind them with his foot; then he put her down and they made themselves at home. Murdock unwrapped the glasses and got the champagne poured.

"So, how does it feel to be a married man?" Jean asked.

"Unusual," he answered, "How about you?"

"I wouldn't know, I never was a married man," she said.

He laughed and handed her a glass, "Well, here's to us."

"To an ongoing life of deceit and deception, you gotta love it," Jean agreed as they clinked their glasses together and drank. She lowered her glass and commented, "This seems familiar too."

"I know," Murdock said, "Except this time we're not pretending we're married because we really _are_ married, that's the difference."

"There's another difference," Jean told him, "Tomorrow morning when we go back, it's going to be like none of this ever happened, as long as we can keep the others in the dark the better it'll be for all of us. I understand if you have a problem with that but it's what we agreed on and it's what has to be done."

"I don't mind it so much," he replied, "There are a lot of things that I never told the guys right away, for obvious reasons."

Jean took his glass and set them on the nightstand and asked him, "So how does it feel knowing you never have to go back to the V.A.?"

"Well, what can I say?" Murdock shrugged, "That is one part of my life that is over now, and this," he reached over and grabbed her hand, "Is another one that's beginning. Such is the way of all cycles of life, one thing starts, another ends, so on and so forth until life itself comes to an end, it's just something to adapt to." He looked at her and smiled, "I think I'm going to like it."

Jean sat back on the bed and said, "You want to hear something funny?"

"Sure, I'm always in the mood for a good laugh," he answered.

"Yesterday Hannibal was talking about if you'd _ever_ get discharged from the V.A." was all the further Jean got before Murdock started laughing, and she was struggling not to join him as she continued, "He wanted to know if there was any chance that you could stay with me for a while."

Murdock fell back against the mattress howling with laughter, "Oh boy, Hannibal must have a touch of the psychic in him, he saw that one coming and didn't even know it!"

They had a couple more drinks and while not enough to actually get drunk on, it helped both of them to loosen up a bit more. Neither of them could even remember what they had been talking about but they lay on the bed alongside each other laughing like a couple of idiots.

"Now I have a personal question for you," Jean told him as she started to sit up, "Something that I feel now that we're married, I can ask without running the risk of being knocked into next week."

"What's that?" he asked.

Jean flipped his cap off his head and asked him, "Was your forehead always this tall?"

He laughed in response and answered, "No, actually this was the result after one time when I tried shaving, like eyebrows it never came back."

Jean looked at him and ran her hand over his eyebrows to make sure they were real and he laughed. Then he leaned in to her and in turn pressed her back against the pillows and he kissed her. It was very simple, but more than he had been willing to show the judge and his witnesses; he didn't know why he'd done it, he just did, and he half expected for her to push him off or slug him but she didn't.

He pulled away and looked at Jean, waiting for some response from her, but there didn't appear to be any. She said nothing, she did nothing, he read no hostility in her eyes nor the expression on her face; Murdock was starting to wonder if something was wrong, when she smiled at him and told him, "You ought to try that when that Amy woman comes back from Jakarta, that'd be a welcome home present she'd never forget."

He hovered over her and grinned back at her, and he said, "You know something, Saint?"

"What?" she asked.

He was still grinning and looking at her through half closed eyes and he answered, "I like you."

"I like you too," she replied.

"Boy, I'm sure glad now that Faceman was never interested in you," he said.

"That makes two of us, I wouldn't have him," Jean told him.

Murdock continued to gaze down at her and said, "It's been a long day, what do you say we just go to bed?"

It was fine with Jean because she was exhausted too. Murdock had brought all of his clothes from the V.A. but Jean hadn't thought to bring a change with her, so they forewent the idea of changing for the night and instead, Murdock just took off his jacket and his shoes and socks, and Jean did the same, and they pulled back the covers and crawled into bed next to each other.

It occurred to Murdock that very little was changed by what had happened tonight; the more he'd thought about it he realized things wouldn't be much different now that they were married than before they were. Oh sure there were a few things that would remain private just between the two of them, but for the most part he didn't think anybody would be able to tell any difference. He looked over at Jean who already had her eyes closed and he said quietly, "Saint?"

"Yeah, Murdock?" she asked as she sat up.

He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and told her, "I think I love you."

She returned his smile and told him, "I think I love you too."

* * *

They hadn't noticed when it started raining but Jean woke up to that little revelation when a flash of lightning lit up the whole room and it was followed by an earth shattering BOOM of thunder that shook the whole motel. A second later Murdock shot up in his side of the bed screaming, his eyes wide but not seeing the motel room. Jean turned on her side but kept her distance and asked him, "Murdock, are you alright?"

He breathed erratically and rapidly as he seemed to come down off of whatever the nightmare had been, and when he realized that there was someone else in bed with him he practically lunged over and threw his arms around her. Jean felt his arm crushing against her neck but she didn't try pushing him off of her, only brought her own arm up to put some breathing room between the two points. She was pressed so tightly against Murdock that she was practically in back of him and she could feel his heart beating like a snare drum against her shoulder and she wondered if he was actually alright. After a minute he seemed to calm down and he slowly let go of her and slid back against the pillows on his side of the bed.

"Murdock, are you okay?" she asked.

He slowly nodded his head and answered, "Yeah, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"I already _was_ up," she told him, "Does this happen often?"

"Uh…every once in a while," he answered.

Jean nodded toward the window that with the help of the neon sign outside, showed the rain pouring down against the glass panes and she asked him, "When it rains?"

Murdock shook his head, "It's not that."

Jean tried to think, if it wasn't a trigger to Vietnam, then it had to be…"From the V.A.?"

Murdock gripped two bunches of the sheet in his hands and nodded his head, "I never had nightmares about the war, even after I crashed I was alright, and I was alright during the trip back but once I was in the hospital, that's when the nightmares started coming. They seldom come up anymore, but when they do…"

Jean had an idea about what happened when they did, and she didn't care about what happened when they did; she crawled over to Murdock's side of the bed and grabbed his hands in hers and lay down with her ear near his heart, which had started to slow down finally.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he answered, "I think it's just actually hit me that I'm released, I'm not going back, no more cover stories, no more of Face's disguises, no more trying to make a getaway in a straitjacket, it's going to take some getting used to."

The storm outside rumbled on, but after a while they both managed to fall back asleep, and they stayed that way for the rest of the night.

* * *

When Murdock felt Jean move away from him to get up, he knew it was morning but he wasn't ready yet to get up and face the outside world of the free and sane and to accept that he could be counted among them. He grabbed Jean and pulled her back down and tiredly murmured, "Come on, let's stay here a while longer."

He always liked it when he had somebody to spend the night with; there was a severe lack of that while he was in the V.A., and while he liked anytime he and Face were paired up for the night, he had to admit there was something nice about this as well. Of course all things considered, what wasn't there to like about spending a night on a large comfortable double bed instead of those hospital cot facsimiles, and spending it in the company of the woman he had just married?

"I'd like to," Jean told him, "But incase you forgot there are likely three mean commandoes at my house wondering where the hell we are, and depending on how long they've been waiting, we're going to have to come up with a good story to tell them."

He _had_ forgotten about it, he'd _chosen_ to forget about it for a minute. But now that she reminded him, he opened his eyes and pushed back the covers on his side and got up as well. He helped her make the bed since by now he was an expert on hospital corners, then he grabbed one of his suitcases and took a change of clothes out for the day and went into the bathroom to change. As he did, he thought about the events from yesterday and the events of last night and how it all fit together; he thought about what had happened and what _was_ going to happen now. They had agreed that they wouldn't tell the others about this until they didn't have any choice; and knowing Decker's persistence that could be any time, and there was no telling what _would_ happen once the word got out.

"Jean!" he called as he went to the door.

"What is it?" she asked.

He stepped out of the bathroom and in two steps he wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her. When he pulled back he told her, "No matter what happens, I love you."

It was the first time he'd ever told her that in any sense of the word, and he still wasn't sure in what sense he meant it but he did mean it, and if by some chance they'd wind up getting killed for what they'd done, he wanted her to know it.

Jean looked up at him and told him, "I love you too," and she returned the kiss, then she said, "Well, let's go face the firing squad."

She looked like that's exactly where they were going. Just before they left the room, Murdock picked up the phone and dialed her house, and it went on ringing so he concluded that the guys still hadn't gotten back to the house. He couldn't figure out why they hadn't, but he was glad they hadn't.

"That puts us in the clear up to now," Jean said, "But if they get home before we do they'll want to know where we were, so on the way back we'll pick up some donuts, that'll be our alibi for this morning. And if they happen to ask where we were last night, I say we tell them we went for a drive."

"In that storm?" Murdock asked.

Jean shrugged as she put on her jacket, "Come on, Murdock, you're supposed to be the crazy one around here, didn't you ever watch the sunsets during a rainstorm?"

"No, but I might have to try it sometime," he said, "It sounds like fun."

* * *

"That's about all there is to it, Hannibal," Murdock said as he finished explaining what had happened that day.

"Well this certainly explains a few things," Hannibal noted.

He hadn't thought anything about all the nights Murdock had spent in Jean's room instead of bunking with Face though now with this new information, it made a lot more sense than he had originally credited to it. Though it still didn't sit well with him; he was getting the idea that this marriage, a sham or not, still meant a lot more to Murdock than it meant to Jean, though he hoped he was wrong because he didn't want to see the pilot getting hurt over this.

"And now you know why he exploded when he found out B.A. hit me the other day," Jean said, "But he couldn't very well say the reason _why_ he was going off the deep end was because the big mud sucker had just KO'd his wife."

"Well it certainly served its intended purpose," Hannibal told them, "You both succeeded in surprising the hell out of all of us."

"You ain't mad are you, Colonel?" Murdock asked, a little worriedly.

Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth and blew out a slow puff of smoke and said assuredly, "No, Murdock, I'm not mad, you just caught me off guard with this sudden announcement. I might've suspected that something like this could happen but I never would've anticipated it."

"Yeah well consider it from my side," Jean told him as she sat down on the arm of the couch, "Day after I get married you're dragging my husband off to Mexico for 3 days, though that's what I get for marrying an army man, they're _always_ on the move."

Hannibal noticed that Murdock was starting to look unsteady on his feet so he went over to the pilot and told him, "Come on, Murdock, I think we better get you back in bed and let you rest."

Murdock resisted weakly and said he was fine, Jean suggested they move him into the kitchen so he could eat first. Face volunteered for that job because he had an idea Hannibal had a few words for Jean; he signaled to B.A. to follow him and he did, leaving she and the colonel alone in the living room.

"Look, Hannibal, I know you don't like this," she started to say.

"You underestimate me," he told her, "You're right, I don't appreciate my team keeping secrets from me…but I can understand why it was done this time. I just hope you know what you're doing, you know Murdock but I've known him a lot longer, I'll admit that doesn't make it any easier to understand some of the things he does, but I don't want to see him get hurt."

She looked at him and said, "And you think I will?"

"I think this means more to him than it's supposed to and than it does to you," he answered.

"I know you don't get it and I know you wouldn't have given your blessing on this even if we had told you," she said.

He glanced at her and told her, "You know, for some reason I keep getting the feeling that you still think of me as some hair trigger ogre or something," he watched the look on her face when he said that and reminded her, "You've been trying to protect him since you got the hell beat out of you by Lynch's men last year, don't you remember? You told me not to be mad at him for giving you his jacket and cap because it was _your_ idea and he didn't know anything about it. It's a very unusual position to put yourself in."

She wasn't looking at him now, instead she focused her attention to the floor, though she told him, "I happen to like Murdock, I'm protective of people I like."

"I've noticed," he commented, "And that's why I believe this whole mock marriage _was_ done for a purely altruistic reason, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think Murdock sees it as being just that; and if you don't either, that's fine, you're already married, and better relationships have been started on far less. I'm dumbstruck at the irony on this however, Murdock has been committed to the psychiatric ward for over 10 years, and _he's_ the first one of us to actually get married."

Jean pointed towards the kitchen and said, "But Murdock said that Face…"

Hannibal waved that off, "He did but that was purely for business. Regardless of that, however, I'd like to see my men be able to settle down and live normal lives, I'd like to see them get married and have their own families someday, granted you weren't exactly what I had in mind for any of them but…Murdock could do worse. Actually if he had to marry someone, I think we all got a big favor by it being you."

"Why's that?" she asked.

"You said it yourself, you know what the score is, you accept it, you know how we work and you know what's necessary, that's going to help us a lot," Hannibal said.

She looked like she didn't know whether or not to be insulted and she said, "You know Murdock would never let anything come between him and the Team."

"No, that's right, but it doesn't mean that lesser women wouldn't try, that's _why_ women are often considered bad luck, because they try to divide and conquer one man against the rest, and you don't do that, I like that in a woman," Hannibal told her, "And I like you."

That seemed to be a relief to her. She thought their conversation was at an end so she tried to walk past Hannibal to the kitchen but he stopped her and pulled her back.

"What is it?" she asked.

He smiled at her and said, "I think I ought to have a turn kissing the bride." And he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Congratulations, kid, if this _does_ work I think you two are going to do very well together."

"Thanks, Hannibal," she said, and he saw a light go on in her eyes as she told him, "That means a lot coming from you."

"Come on," he told her, "Let's go see what the others are up to."

* * *

Shortly after breakfast, Murdock returned to bed somewhat reluctantly as he was still exhausted, even though he didn't want to admit it. While he slept, Face tried to process the information that had been dumped on them over the last couple of days and he still couldn't make any sense out of it.

"The part that I can't figure out," he told Jean, "How could you possibly have known that his doctors would release him when you went back that day?"

"I didn't," she said, "And he didn't, but we hoped for the best. Though in all honesty I don't know how Dr. Richter could _not_ have released him."

"You weren't there when they reexamined him, were you?" he asked.

"No," she answered, "But that doesn't matter. I'm really surprised that you never figured it out."

"What's that?" Face asked.

"Do you honestly believe Murdock was crazy?" she asked.

"I told you they ran every test and couldn't tell either way," he said.

"But what about _you_?" she asked, "We know what B.A. thinks about it but did you really think that Murdock was crazy?"

"To some degree, yes," Face answered, "You didn't?"

"He might be crazy, but he's not insane and I don't think he ever was," Jean said, "And he certainly wasn't the last few years he's been at the V.A., the answer was in the question; he acts crazy all the time so he must _be_ crazy, he says he's insane so he must be insane, he certainly acts like it. He _acts_ like it, Face, he acted too crazy to actually _be_ insane, as much wild stuff as he always did, he just _had_ to be sane."

"That's a weird approach to take on the subject," he told her.

"But nonetheless true," she said, "I told him last year when we met, crazy people don't _think_ they're crazy, insane people are _never_ going to admit they're insane because they don't think they are."

"Then why is he still acting crazy?" B.A. asked, "If he's not insane?"

"Yeah," Face wanted to know, "Why would the doctors release him when he acts the same now that he always has? They didn't let him out 10 years ago for a reason."

"Murdock is smart, he knows what the right and wrong answers are when the doctors talk to them, and he always said what they needed to hear to decide he was insane, to keep his cover going," Jean said, "He could've gotten himself declared sane and discharged at any time, but he never did because he knew he had to protect his cover. But Decker saw to it that that's not any good anymore, so Murdock got out of there just in time."

"Right…" Face still wasn't sure he got it, "But why does Murdock still act like he always has at the hospital now that he's out permanently?"

Jean looked him in the eye and asked him, "What was Murdock like before Vietnam?"

"I don't know," Face answered, "None of us knew him back then."

"Exactly," she said, "If he was _always_ like he is, then this _is_ normal for him, and if he _wasn't_ like this before, then if he stopped being that way now he would be a stranger to you, you wouldn't know him, and if you didn't know him you couldn't trust him." She looked to B.A. and added, "That is the greatest irony, you keep getting angry at him because he acts crazy, but you wouldn't know what to do with him if he ever stopped doing it, you trust him when he's crazy and you trust him _because_ he's crazy and you're used to that, so regardless of if this is his real self or not, he's always going to be this way."

"What was that," Face asked, "Pillow talk between you two?"

"No," she answered, "But the last couple of days should've proved it, you _knew_ he was sick and you _knew_ it was serious because he _did_ stop acting crazy. It scared the hell out of all of us because we knew it was a warning that something wasn't right with him."

"She's right," Hannibal said as he reached into his pocket for a new cigar, "Now, his fever's down today but he's still weak and quiet for the most part. But I think it would be a good idea to get away from here soon because once Decker gets back in the state, he's going to head for this place first. I say by tomorrow Murdock should be well enough we can actually move him, but I don't want to risk trying to make a long trip in the van with him as sick as he still is."

Jean got up from her chair and said, "I'm going to stay with him incase he needs anything…" she turned and caught the look Face was starting to give her and added, "And I'll leave the door open incase anybody decides to come in."

Face waited until she was actually in the bedroom before he said anything, "I still don't get it, Hannibal, and I don't know that I like it."

"Me either, man," B.A. added, "Something ain't right about this whole thing."

"That might be," Hannibal said, "However whatever it is, it'll wait until we're back in civilization and Murdock is up and around again. In the meantime I suggest we just humor them, especially for Murdock's sake, it isn't going to do him any good if he thinks we don't approve."

"Well do we?" Face asked.

Hannibal took his cigar out of his mouth and blew out a long puff of smoke and said, "I don't see why not, at least not for the time being. They're right, it might not work for long, but for the time being Murdock has a new cover where the military's concerned, it keeps him in the clear still."

"Yeah but then there's Jean's story about being one of our pilots," Face reminded him.

"Which," Hannibal pointed out, "Will be very easy to disprove because she can just barely fly a helicopter, she's no expert and Murdock never taught her how to fly an airplane. The army would probably only see her as an attention seeking lunatic, like whenever there's a groundbreaking murder and the police get dozens of confessions from people who had nothing to do with it. I don't think she's in any real danger either, at least not yet."

"Yeah well I'm for keeping it that way and keeping us _all_ out of danger if possible," Face said, "So what're we going to do?"

* * *

Murdock was watched around the clock, he was woken up twice to eat and given pills every few hours. Hannibal made sure that his fever wasn't getting worse and by nightfall he decided Murdock was well enough they could chance the ride back into town. Several times during the day Murdock had tried to joke with them and keep up his regular zany topics of conversation but it was obvious his heart wasn't in it yet because his body was still weak. Jean had stayed with him most of the day and fallen asleep beside him on the bed, so Hannibal grabbed her and B.A. lifted Murdock out of the bed and carried him out to the van where Face had set up a makeshift bed in the back for him to rest in. They loaded up everything they'd brought and drove out of there. Murdock slept through most of the trip back though he did wake up a couple of times when the van hit a bump in the road but for the most part he was out like a dead light.

When they returned to Jean's house, Hannibal told Face and B.A. to get their stuff out first but to leave Murdock and Jean to rest for a few minutes. They turned on the lights and made sure there wasn't anybody already inside waiting for them. As Face looked around for any potential intruders, he noticed that Hannibal was also opening drawers and sorting through their contents, he seemed to be looking for something in particular, but Face didn't know what and he didn't ask either.

As he and B.A. made the rounds through the ground floor rooms they noticed that Hannibal had apparently found what he was looking for, a black magic marker and a large piece of thin cardboard and he was writing something on it, lightly chuckling under his breath. Then he took the piece of cardboard and went out to the hall, and Face and B.A. looked at each other, wondering what that was all about. A minute later they heard a hammering noise coming from the top of the stairs and they went up to see what it was about. They found out halfway up the stairs and stopped and they were both left dumbstruck when they saw that Hannibal had made a small sign and nailed it up outside of the door to Jean's bedroom, reading only: Honeymoon Suite. He looked at his work and seemed pleased with it and was still chuckling to himself.

Face leaned over to B.A. and told him, "I think Hannibal's enjoying this a little too much."

"I know, man," B.A. replied, "It looks like Murdock's craziness finally rubbed off on him."

The front door opened and they heard Murdock and Jean talking as they came in. They went downstairs to see what was going on and saw Jean half leading Murdock over to the couch where they both promptly fell down and were automatically about asleep. Hannibal came into the room at that time and suggested that they go upstairs and actually go to bed.

Jean rubbed her eyes and grumbled as she stood up, "I hate you, you wake me up so I can go to sleep, you're just like the nurses in the hospital."

Hannibal waited until they walked past him and were almost to the stairs before he said, "Incidentally, Jean…"

"What?" she sharply asked as she turned around.

"What happened to all of Murdock's stuff when he cleared out of the V.A.?" he asked.

"There wasn't much to clear out," she explained, "Two suitcases and two boxes, we put them in the trunk of my car and I put them up in my closet when you guys left for Mexico City. Until we broke the news we weren't sure about actually unpacking his stuff in my room."

"That would explain it," Hannibal said as he turned to the sergeant and the lieutenant.

"I still think you're taking this a little too well, Hannibal," Face said.

"Maybe so," he commented, "But for the time being I don't see us having much of a problem with this. We know Jean, she knows us, she knows how we work, she knows what the realities are, and this _is_ a legal marriage, regardless of why they did it. Besides," his oh-too-familiar grin was back in place and Face didn't like it, "Who knows? This could turn out to be something wonderful."

As he stood there chuckling lightly, Jean quietly made her way down the stairs with the Honeymoon Suite sign in hand and without a word she came up behind Hannibal and smacked him on the head with it and caused him to almost swallow his cigar. She turned on her heel and hotfooted it back up the stairs as Face and B.A. laughed like a couple of hyenas at Hannibal's expense and Face replied, "Well it seems to be off to a good start anyway."

"Ha ha," Hannibal dryly remarked, though the smirk on his face remained.


	18. Chapter 18

"That ought to cure Hannibal's sense of humor for the night anyway," Jean told Murdock as she dug around through a drawer until she found what she was looking for and took a small bottle of whiskey over to him, "Here, what was it you said, the farmer's folk remedy to everything?"

"Kill or cure," Murdock said as he took the bottle, "If the whiskey don't kill you it ought to cure whatever you got." He placed his lips over the mouth of the bottle, closed his eyes and tilted his head back and managed to swallow a swig of it. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and said, "Not bad," as he handed the bottle back to her.

"So this is what you went through for two days when I was sick last year," she said as she screwed the lid back on and sat down beside him on the bed, "I don't mind telling you it sucks."

Murdock smiled weakly and told her, "I know, from both sides."

Jean got off the bed and went over to the closet and took his boxes out and started taking his stuff out.

"What're you doing?" Murdock asked.

"Well since they know now, we might as well get your stuff unpacked," Jean told him, "I'll have to figure out how to rearrange my stuff so there's room for everything, but it's doable."

"That'll wait until morning," he told her, "Come on to bed."

"I'll be along in a minute," she said, "I want to at least get _some_ of your stuff out since you live here now. Clearly Hannibal doesn't seem to have a problem with this, but I'm not sure Face is happy about it."

"Don't let him get to you," Murdock said, "I'm sure he's just jealous that I beat him to the altar. The great Faceman might be petrified by the thought of commitment, but I think secretly he was hoping to be the first one to get married and settle down. By the way, Saint, I'm sorry that I wasn't able to be there with you when you broke the news to them, I would've liked to help explain things in the beginning."

"That's alright," she said as she sorted through his belongings, "I think I handled it alright myself."

Jean grabbed a short pile of books and pulled them out and only glanced at the titles, but there was one that caught her eye. It was a tall, black and white checkered hardback book with a woman in a green dress on the cover with a baby and a large goose under them both. She took it over to the bed and held it out to Murdock, "Is this yours?"

He opened one eye and took the book from her, "Yeah, somebody left this behind at the V.A. a few years ago and I kept it."

"Ah," Jean said as she climbed onto the bed beside him and lay against the pillow on her side, "The intellectual reading, eh?"

"Something like that," Murdock said as he flipped through the book of nursery rhymes, "You ever wonder what kind of sick, twisted, demented mind comes up with these stories to tell kids? Blind mice getting their tails cut off, old men being thrown down the stairs, the black death, children falling through the ice and drowning, Robin Hood getting killed…I mean who…" he turned to ask Jean a question and saw that she had fallen asleep. That was fate, he'd been asleep all day and now that he was awake, she had to sleep. He leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head and continued to flip through his book, and settled on one poem that stuck out for him, "Oh dearest Jenny Wren, if you will be but mine, you shall feed on cherry pie and drink new currant wine."

He about hit the ceiling when Jean, without opening her eyes or moving her body an inch, tiredly replied, "Cherry pie is very nice and so is currant wine, but I must wear my brown gown and never go too fine."

* * *

The next morning Murdock was back to his regular bouncing ball of energy self and ran circles around the others to prove that while he'd been down for a couple of days, he hadn't missed a beat.

"Of course, Hannibal," Face said over Murdock running through the house and about knocking them down, "You do realize that now that Decker knows that Jean's involved, he's going to be back here looking for us, right?"

"Of course, it's only to be expected," Hannibal replied.

"And?" Face asked, "You don't seriously mean that we're going to stay here and wait for him to come and find us, do you?"

Jean passed by them as she made her way into the kitchen and remarked in passing, "You could always try and make him think he's lost his mind and is only hallucinating seeing you."

Hannibal seemed to seriously consider it for a minute and replied, "That would be a good trick."

"Sure," Face said, "But _how_ would you pull it off?"

Jean had a suggestion to that but it was muffled between the two rooms. Face stuck his head into the kitchen and asked, "What?"

She came back to where they stood in the dining room and she repeated, "Sodium amytal."

"Truth serum?" Face repeated.

"No," Jean shook her head, "That's what people _think_ it is, but what it really does is create memories through the power of suggestion." She had the biggest cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on her face they had ever seen as she said, "Can you imagine the fun we'd have at his expense then?"

"I think you'd enjoy it too much," Hannibal warned her.

"Well then?" she asked.

Hannibal considered it for a minute and concluded, "There _could_ be something to the idea though."

"Watcha thinking, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"I can guess," Jean said, and she asked Hannibal, "Did you ever take any drugs in the 60s?"

"No," he answered.

"Me either," she replied, "But I still think I know of a way we could put Decker through a ringer that would be very similar to an acid trip."

Face looked from her over to Hannibal and mumbled under his breath, "I hate when I'm sandwiched in the middle of these things."

He felt Murdock squeeze between them and he gripped Face's shoulder consolingly and told him, "Not to worry, Faceman, with me here we are the double stuffed cream in this insane Oreo cookie."

"Thanks, Murdock," Face replied, not having the heart to tell Murdock that that didn't make him feel any better about it.

"By now," Hannibal said, "Decker's probably gotten out of the drunk tank in Santa Fe, he should be back soon and I'll just bet this will be his second stop."

"What's the first?" Murdock asked.

"Getting another set of clothes," Jean answered.

Hannibal continued, "And if he's coming, we'd better get ready for him." He flashed his trademark mischievous grin at Jean and told her, "With your permission, Jean, we're going to have to take this house apart and put it back together again to get it ready for Decker's arrival."

"What did you have in mind?" she asked.

* * *

Face was right. Decker did come back and he had been making his way around Jean's yard making sure there were no booby traps set for him, and also checking for any sign that the A-Team was there right now. Making his way around to the back yard, he had noticed only Jean's car was in the driveway, but that still left the garage. First he checked for any obvious signs that the large wooden door had been rigged with something, but finding nothing he grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. The wood was warped and didn't budge easily but he got it open enough that he could see the headlights, grille, and windshield of a van inside, and it was good enough for him. He pulled the door shut and went back to the house and announced his presence by busting the door open.

The sight that met him when he stepped in took him by a slight surprise; Jean and Murdock were seated on the couch and looked annoyed at the intruder, but otherwise acted as if it was all normal. Right away Decker noted that he didn't see the others anywhere though he expected they were close by.

"Was the bell out of order?" Jean asked as she got up from the couch.

"Alright, Miss Rhodes, where are they?" Decker asked her.

Jean got on the toes of one foot to get in his face again as she replied in a tone matching his, "Where are who?"

"You know perfectly well who I'm talking about," he told her, "Smith, Baracus and Peck."

"Never heard of them," she answered and turned on her heel.

Decker grabbed her arm and jerked her back around and she warned him, "You touch me again, Roddy and I can guarantee it'll be your _last_." She pulled away from him and added, "You're not the _only _one around here that was trained to kill, you know."

Murdock watched the two of them like it was a tennis match, and that statement took Decker by genuine surprise and he absentmindedly took a step back, before lunging forward so he was in Jean's face and asking her, "Is that a threat?"

"It's a promise," she told him, "I already killed 20 men, you will _not_ be anything special, I can promise you that. Now, is there a specific reason why you're here, or were you just in the neighborhood and looking for private property to vandalize?"

"I know Smith and the others are here, why don't you do yourself _and_ your _husband_ a favor and tell me where they are?" he asked.

Jean had slowly inched away from him and back towards the couch and she told him, "I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

He pointed to the back of the house and said, "I'm talking about their van is out in your garage right now."

"Oh please," Jean said, "There's plenty of junk out there but no van, and no room for one either."

Decker forced both of them to come with him and he pulled the garage door open again and did a double take when he saw the van was gone. He went inside and turned the lights on and saw that the garage _was_ full of a bunch of junk, and he stepped over paint cans and turpentine canisters and empty boxes, over to the back of the garage and found a second door and went out it, and was let down to find that the van wasn't behind the garage either.

Jean leaned over to Murdock and said into his ear, but loud enough for Decker to hear, "I think he's losing it, Murdock."

"Oh I'd bet money on it that he is," he answered, "It's sad really, I saw this _all_ the time at the V.A., you know one minute the patients would be fine, and then the next they'd be seeing things that weren't there like whole crowds of people and green canaries, one man swore these three little trolls climbed out of the fireplace and were trying to kill him."

"I don't find that funny, Murdock," Decker warned him as he came back to them, "Now where'd the van go?"

"What van?" Jean asked, "Do you see _any_ room in there for a van? I sure as hell don't, how do you explain that?"

It burnt Decker up that he _couldn't_ explain it and what more he couldn't figure out how they had gotten out of here so fast, and without him hearing anything; it just didn't seem possible, but it had to be.

Jean turned to Murdock and said, "I guess we're going to have a guest for breakfast."

"I reckon so," Murdock agreed.

"Suppose you might as well come in and we'll set another place at the table for you," Jean told Decker, "Never let it be said we weren't hospitable, even if it _was_ better than you deserved."

Decker followed them back into the house and tried to get one of them to slip and say something about the A-Team being there, but with no luck. However, he knew he was onto something when he saw five plates at the kitchen table, and each one had three boiled eggs on it.

"Do you _always_ cook 15 eggs for breakfast?" he dryly asked Jean.

"Certainly," she answered, "We like to eat."

"Uh huh," he looked at the table again and asked her, "And do you always eat them on five plates?"

Jean looked down at the table as if for the first time and shook her head, "No, one plate's for me, and one plate's for Murdock, the other three are for Bimbo."

Decker blinked, "And who is that?"

Jean pointed to the ceiling, "He's the green canary that lives in the attic."

"The what?"

"He came with the place, don't you know," Jean shrugged, "Insists he's got as much right to be here as anyone else, but he eats three times the food that we do. But, you know how these 500 pound canaries are, what're you going to do with them?"

Decker wasn't amused and he was intent to shut this down right here and now, "Now you don't expect me to believe _you're_ insane now too."

"Who said _anything_ about insanity?" Murdock asked, "I'll tell _you_ what's insane, what's insane is _you_ busting into our home, harassing my wife, putting your hands on her and _crashing_ into her car and nearly killing her."

That surprised Decker because he had just about forgotten about that incident, and at the time had been convinced that Jean had no memory of the collision. However, he wasn't going to be blown off. He had come here for a reason and he made it clear, "If Smith and the others aren't here now, they will be sooner or later, whenever they get another client and they have to fly they'll have to come back here and get Murdock."

Jean got in Decker's face and, gesturing to Murdock, told him, "There you go again, Roddy, I sure wish you'd stop putting ideas into this boy's head, he's not used to them. Murdock fly anybody anywhere in anything," she started to laugh, "That's quite an imagination you've got, I told you he can't fly anymore."

"And you expect me to believe that?" Decker asked her, "What kind of idiot do you think I am, Miss Rhodes?"

"I don't know," she replied, "What kinds are there?"

Right now Murdock was particularly glad that Jean was a woman otherwise he was sure Decker would be mopping the floor with her for this behavior. As it was there wasn't a whole hell of a lot Decker _could_ do besides gradually become more infuriated by their lack of cooperation; still he could tell the colonel's mind was thinking of other ways to put a stop to this very quickly.

"If you think I've forgotten about your proclamation of your own involvement with Smith and Peck, you're sorely mistaken," he told her.

"Decker, what the hell are you talking about?" Jean asked, "_Who_ are Smith and Peck? And what do you want with them?"

"Playing stupid isn't going to get you anywhere," he pointed out.

"I might say the same thing to _you_," she remarked, "You come barging into my house going on about your idiotic theories about people I've never met and expect us to actually know something about it, who do you _think_ the stupid one around here is?"

Decker was starting to realize that they could argue back and forth about this all day and he wouldn't get anywhere, but he realized he might not need to. He realized that Jean was wearing the same army jacket that he'd seen before, with the same four medals on them. He grabbed the tail of the right side of the jacket in his hand and felt over the medals and asked her, "If you never met Smith or the others, where did you get these medals from?"

"From me," Murdock spoke up, and when Decker turned and glared at him he explained, "The Air Medal is mine, we didn't have a ring when we got married so I thought it was only right that she wear my most prized possession. The others I won in a poker game at the V.A., you'd be surprised what guys will wager when they won't let you use matchsticks."

"Anymore questions, Decker?" Jean asked him.

He turned back and glared at her and apparently forgot her previous warning because he grabbed her by the arm, hard, and warned her, "If you think you won't be held responsible for whatever role you _did_ play in aiding and abetting Hannibal Smith and his friends, you'd better think again."

Murdock was ready to step in and beat Decker's ears off but he could tell from the look Jean was giving him that now wasn't the time. She struggled against Decker's hold and asked him, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about three days ago at that farmhouse," Decker told her and half throttled her as he added, "I'm talking about you and Smith and Peck in that house and you proclaiming yourself to be one of their pilots."

Jean groaned and pulled away from him and asked him, "You got any witnesses to that?"

"I don't need witnesses," he told her, "What I saw and what I heard is proof enough."

Jean laughed and remarked, "I might be just the dumb kid from New York but it's my understanding you need _witnesses_ to make anything hold up, and I don't imagine the military court would be any different there than a legal one. Your word wouldn't be good enough."

"It wouldn't, but catching Smith and the others would," he replied, "As I said, they'll come here sooner or later."

Jean looked like she was choking on a laugh and she said, "And what, you're going to stay here until they do? You've got a long wait, I can guarantee that."

However Decker made it obvious that he wasn't going anywhere because he firmly believed that the others were close by and on the offchance that they _weren't_ here earlier, then he figured they would be soon. Murdock and Jean accepted their temporary role as hostages held in their own home and decided to make the best of it while Decker was insistent on playing this idiotic game of his.

* * *

Decker was right, Hannibal and the others were close by; in fact they were holding up in the house next door to Jean's, next door being a loose term because the property distance made it closer to two houses over so they had to use high powered binoculars to look into the windows and see what was going on.

"So far so good," Hannibal said as he gazed into the living room window, "Looks like Decker's right where we want him."

"Leave it to Hannibal," Face murmured to B.A., "It's two months until Halloween so he decides to play haunted house _now_."

"Hey man, if it works," B.A. replied, "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have to put _Decker_ in the crazy fool's old room at the hospital."

"It would be a nice change of pace," Hannibal agreed.

They had spent several hours fixing things in Jean's house so that Hannibal's plan would work. They'd had B.A. fix Jean's phone so as soon as anybody picked up the receiver, a red light would flash on the transmitter they had set up in the house next door; and what would follow would guarantee no calls would go out and Decker wouldn't have any idea what the hell was going on. They'd also set up a few remote controlled, spring activated surprises and booby traps around the house that would leave no evidence of what had happened and Hannibal figured should perfect confusing the hell out of Decker to an art form.

Face gazed out the window and saw the gray clouds filling the sky and commented, "Looks like the plan to keep Decker in the house overnight should be a cinch now, if those clouds open up we could be in for a real storm."

"Yeah," Hannibal grinned around the cigar clamped between his teeth, "The perfect atmosphere for haunting a house."

* * *

"How many rooms are there in this house, Miss Rhodes?" Decker asked her.

"Why?" she asked dryly, "You a zoning expert now?"

It was the afternoon now and tensions had been running high all morning; but now Murdock noted that if they got any higher they'd be in orbit. They had managed to get through lunch without too much trouble from Decker but he just didn't know when to take a hint and shut up; he was still examining every square inch of the house looking for answers, looking for evidence, looking for something and the fact that he wasn't finding it was weighing heavily on everybody's nerves.

He grabbed her by her jacket and jerked her off the couch and to her feet, "How many rooms upstairs?"

"How the hell should I know?" she asked, "I don't count them, I just use them."

"Well you're going to give a little tour and we're going to see just who is and _isn't_ in this house," he told her.

Jean straightened out her jacket, glanced over at her husband who returned her look, turned back to Decker and said, "Why not? Follow me, walk this way." And with that, she hunched her back over and walked on her toes, Murdock followed suit, and Decker walked erect right behind them.

They went up the stairs and one by one he examined the rooms; looked behind every door, checked in every closet, under every bed, even opened the dresser drawers and checked them too.

"Just _why_," he asked Jean, "Did you buy a house with three spare bedrooms?"

"For when family visits," Jean answered, "My parents each need a separate room to themselves, my father snores, my mom's a cover hog, you can't put them in one bed and you can't put them on the couch either, there'd be a massacre."

"That leaves one more spare room," Decker pointed out, "There isn't anyone else in your family."

"No, not yet," Jean patted her stomach, "But give us a little while and we should be able to fix that."

Even for a man of his hardened nature, Decker couldn't help internally cringing at that mental image.

"That," Murdock announced as they came to Jean's door, "Is the master bedroom, enter at your own risk."

Decker wasn't sure how to interpret that so he listened at the door first, and then threw it open and waited to make sure nothing was going to explode, then he walked into the room. The sight of the room was enough to make him sick; it wasn't so much that it looked like a tornado had gone through the room but the array of toys and stuffed animals and what he presumed to be Murdock's things on one side and Jean's on the other, and the closet looked like the laundry hamper threw up, but that was impossible to determine what was whose. The more Decker looked around at the room and acknowledged what it all meant, that these two people actually _were_ married and were living together, the more he wanted to puke.

What Decker didn't know was that while he was upstairs snooping around, Hannibal, Face and B.A. took advantage of the fact that Jean's room did not have a view of the street in front of the house and they promptly removed Decker's car from view and the premises entirely. Once that was taken care of, Hannibal pressed one of the buttons on the remote and set off the first booby trap in the house.

Decker heard the noise coming from the attic and promptly asked, knowing he had them now, "What was that?"

"Must be Bimbo," Jean said as they heard the sound of something or someone heavy moving around above their heads.

"Green canaries, eh? We'll see about that," Decker drew his gun and headed for the attic stairs.

"You go up there, Decker, and you'll be sorry," Murdock said as they followed behind him.

"I'll be the judge of that," Decker replied as he climbed the stairs. It was dark at the top and he couldn't see a light switch anywhere, but all the same he held his gun and commanded, "Alright, Smith, come out with your hands up or I start shooting."

He heard a rushed flapping sound and something came up out of the darkness and sprang at him; he didn't know what it was but he took one step back and tripped over something and fell against the floor, just in time to realize that the noise he heard was a bird. The lights came on and he saw it was a green macaw, and, Decker noted not amusedly, it seemed to be laughing at him.

"Now see what you did?" Murdock asked, "You upset Bimbo."

"500 pound canary, eh?" Decker asked as he got up, "Where did that bird even come from?"

"If the stickers on his suitcase were any indicator, Brazil," Murdock answered.

Decker went over the rest of the attic with a fine toothed comb and wasn't able to find anything to indicate that anyone else was or recently had been up there. As he started towards the stairs, Jean warned him, "Whatever you do, don't step on the kitty cat."

"What cat?" Decker asked.

"You won't be able to miss her," Jean said.

Decker blew off that advice and started down the stairs, and halfway down he tripped on something and rolled the rest of the way down. When he came to a sudden stop he could hear the two people upstairs calling down, "You stepped on kitty cat's tail!"

Decker got up again and hit the light switch and saw that he had tripped over a six foot long stuffed tiger. He grumbled under his breath, "Step on the kitty cat's tail," and kicked the toy and knocked it against the wall; then he turned around and about hit the ceiling when he heard a loud animalistic growl coming from behind. He saw Murdock and Jean coming down the stairs and he told Murdock, "So help me, I'll find _some_ way to have you shot at dawn for this."

"For what?" Jean replied, "Being a bad host? Don't forget Decker, you barged in here of your own accord, you made yourself at home, it was your bright idea to come here in the first place, and to stay, so don't get mad at us for the misfortune you're bringing about on yourself."

Decker rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, "I'm surrounded by mental cases."

"You knew _that_ when you came out here too," Jean reminded him.

Decker had twisted his ankle and injured his back falling down the stairs so his trip back down to the first floor was a bit slower than his tramp upstairs had been; but when he got downstairs again he quickly noticed that something was wrong. He went over to the window and saw that his car was gone and he turned around and glared at Murdock and his wife, and he told them, "I don't know _how_ Smith did it but I _know_ he's behind this."

"Boy," Jean said with a shake of her head, "You 'is nuttier than an almond bar, you know that, Roddy? What're you babbling about now?"

"That," he pointed at the window, "My car is gone."

"Are you sure you didn't park it in a tow-away zone?" Murdock asked.

"There is _no_ tow-away zone out there," Decker pointed out.

"Are you sure you didn't leave the keys in it to get stolen?" Jean asked.

"Yes I'm sure," Decker told her and pulled the keys out of his pocket to prove it.

"Well, how about that?" she replied, "Grand theft auto in the middle of nowhere, go figure."

"Oh shut up," he warned her, "Where's the phone?"

"Over there," she pointed, "Why? You going to call the auto club?"

"I'm going to call Crane," Decker answered as he went over to the phone, "I'm going to get _somebody_ with a brain out here and I'm going to…" he stopped in midsentence when he put the receiver to his ear.

"What's the matter?" Jean asked.

Decker didn't answer, he was too busy trying to figure out _why_ the hell he was hearing a set of bugles play "First Call" in the telephone receiver. And in the house next door, Hannibal, Face and B.A. were trying their hardest not to laugh as Hannibal kept the transmitter's microphone directly over the speaker on the tape recorder playing assorted calls and sound effects.

"Get over here," Decker told Murdock and handed him the receiver, "Listen to this!"

Murdock put the phone to his ear and nodded his head accordingly and said, "Oh yes…lovely string quartet."

Decker's eyes about popped out of his head, "String quartet?" he took the receiver back to hear for himself, "That's bugles!"

"_Now_ he's hearing bugles on the telephone," Jean turned to Murdock and rolled her eyes.

Murdock shook his head grimly and commented, "It's always sad to see _anybody_ lose it, but it's especially hard when it's a person in an important power of position, like a colonel."

Jean looked to Murdock and said, "Tell me, Murdock, _what_ was the name of that doctor you saw at the V.A.?"

"Doctor Richter," Murdock answered.

Jean nodded toward Decker, "You think he could do anything for this thing?"

"Well I don't know," he said, "But it wouldn't hurt to ask…I'm sure they can get a room fixed up for Decker at the V.A. in no time, being a colonel and all…hey! Maybe he'll get lucky and they'll give him my old room!"

Decker looked like strangling both of them would be a good option right about now and he told them, "They'll never lock _me_ up in _any_ mental ward, there's _nothing_ wrong with me."

"You see, Murdock?" Jean said, "What did I tell you? Sane people always say they're nutty, and the insane people are never going to admit that they're crazy."

Decker didn't take kindly to Jean's opinions but it was obvious he was stuck hearing them for the time being since his car was gone and the phone wasn't working, _and_ as if his day couldn't get bad enough, he could hear the sound outside of rain coming down, hard.

* * *

"Can I call them or what?" Face grinned as they saw the rain beating down outside, "Decker is definitely _not_ going anywhere now."

"That's good," Hannibal replied, "Because that'll make it a lot easier for us to execute stage 2 of my plan. I just hope Jean can hold off on killing Decker long enough for it to work."

"Yeah, but if he doesn't stop grabbing her, she just might," Face noted, "And I can't say I blame her. Maybe it's just me but I don't remember Decker ever getting all hands with a woman before."

"Well, he knows how to read people," Hannibal reminded him, "He knows she's not intimidated by his general presence like most people are. I told her unless he actually tries to kill one of them, to let it go as best she can, I hope she does."

"So what do we do now, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.

Hannibal consulted his watch and said, "They'll be eating dinner soon. Decker has to go to sleep sometime, and when he _does_, then we're going to go over and really give him something to tell the psychiatrists about."

"You really think it'll work?" Face asked.

"I don't see why not," Hannibal said as he collected a few of B.A.'s gadgets, "I suggest we get something to eat, and then rest for a while because tonight we're going over there for a little rendition of A Haunting We Will Go, and I'm sure that come tomorrow morning Decker will either say 'to hell with it' and leave Jean and Murdock alone, or he'll be so far gone around the bend we'll have to scrape him off the ceiling with a spatula, either way we can't lose." The very thought of it brought one very familiar grin to his face.


	19. Chapter 19

The rain continued all through the afternoon and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. Decker had gotten tired of every time he passed by a wall something jumped out at him so for the time being he became content with sitting on the couch in the living room while Murdock and Jean were in the kitchen. While Jean got everything out to start cooking dinner, she asked Murdock, "Remind me again, what was that word you used when Lynch came to see you at the V.A., that trigger word that made him leave?"

"Ammonia," he answered, "Why?"

"Ammonia," she repeated, "That's ingenious, I ought to come up with a trigger word too, something that whenever anybody said it I just went off like a time bomb, KABOOM!"

"Sounds like Pee-Wee Herman," Murdock commented.

She waved him off, "How did you come up with ammonia?"

"Oh they used it all the time to clean the floors at the V.A.," he explained, "It kind of became obvious that it would be a perfect thing to use."

"No kidding," she said with a shake of her head, "I ought to come up with something like that, only it wouldn't be if _I_ said it, to hit the dirt, it would be if somebody else said it, something like…"

"Niagara Falls?" Murdock suggested.

She laughed, "That's already taken. Maybe something like…" she snapped her fingers, "Maybe bleach, it's a common enough word."

"Yeah," Murdock gestured towards the living room, "But how would you get Decker to say it?"

"Oh I don't know, but I could think of something," Jean said.

"Speaking of which, I better make sure he's behaving himself," Murdock said with a smirk as he turned and left the kitchen.

Jean nodded as he left and once he was gone, she turned and got in the cupboard under the sink and dug through the cooking sheets and green scratchers, detergent, matches, and finally found what she was looking for and pulled out a jug of bleach.

"Mr. Decker, I hope you enjoy your dinner tonight," she murmured to herself.

* * *

Decker had started sorting through all the small stuff on the coffee table and the inn table in the living room, still determined to find _something_ that would incriminate the whole lot. He seriously doubted that they could've removed every piece of incriminating evidence or concealed it for visitors' benefits so he looked through all the framed photographs and any scrap of scratch paper he found. Somehow he had figured that there would be a picture somewhere of Hannibal and the others; he hadn't seen any in Murdock's room at the V.A. but that didn't mean that none existed. However his search turned up empty, the only thing he found that drew any attention to itself was one framed photo of Murdock and Jean standing side by side in matching shorts and Hawaiian shirts; Decker could tell by Jean's appearance that this photograph had been taken a long time ago, at least a year. So maybe there _was_ some credibility to her story, he doubted it but he couldn't for the life of him think any of them would have any reason to phony up a picture like that.

"Like what you see?" Murdock asked as he entered the room.

Decker put the picture down and asked the pilot, "When was this taken?"

"Oh about a year ago," Murdock answered as if he was discussing this with anybody in the whole world besides Decker, "We were in Illinois at the time that was taken, we had a good time there."

Decker glared at Murdock and said, "I'm still not convinced that you and the rest of the A-Team aren't just trying to give me the runaround with this."

"No?" Murdock asked innocently.

"No," Decker replied firmly.

"Well now why would we do that?" Murdock asked with a mischievous grin.

"Oh I'm sure you can think of a few reasons," Decker replied.

Murdock held his hands up innocently and shook his head, "Honest, ain't a single thought going around in this head. They took them all from me at the hospital. They stole my thoughts, did you know they did that? They hook you up to all these wires and start a machine that's supposed to run tests but instead it sweeps your mind clean and sucks all the thoughts right out of your brain."

"How the hell did you ever get discharged?" Decker wanted to know.

Murdock took his cap off and glanced towards the ceiling and said, "The fates must've been smiling down on me."

"The what?"

"Don't you know anything about that, Decker?" Jean asked as she came out of the kitchen, "Everybody knows that old story, the Armstrongs married the Headstrongs, and that's how Harpies were born."

Decker was very tempted to repeat his previous statement of being surrounded by mental cases but he knew it wouldn't do any good.

"Dinner's cooking but it's going to be a while," Jean said as she sat down on the couch and took a deck of cards out from a drawer built under the bottom of the coffee table and added, "Might as well do something stimulating to pass the time."

Murdock joined her for a game of cards but Decker was not interested; instead he proceeded pacing around the house looking for any little thing that could be used against them to break their cover. During his rounds he made his way into the kitchen and while he didn't know why, he just had a feeling eating at him that he ought to look in the trashcan and see what he found there. He wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be looking for, but he did find something and it upset him greatly; half hidden under the Styrofoam packing the chicken had been kept in was an empty jug of bleach. He knew that he hadn't seen it earlier in the day when he'd been in the kitchen, and a quick test of the olfactory system told him that nothing had been cleaned with bleach that day either. He turned his attention to the chicken baking in the oven and he put two and two together, and didn't like the answer he got.

* * *

Decker watched suspiciously when the chicken came out of the oven that night and was cut up and served on three plates along with mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and buttered rolls. He watched Jean and Murdock to see if either made any movement or made a gesture in any way to signal one another about anything, but he saw nothing; Jean looked like the perfect, sedate hostess and Murdock's eyes were about as big as the plates as he dished his food up. Jean had taken the liberty to get Decker's plate ready as well and shoved it over towards him, but he wouldn't touch the food. He picked the plate up and sniffed the food to see if he could detect the familiar odor of bleach, he didn't smell any but he wasn't going to let that be answer enough for him.

"Go ahead and dig in," Jean told him.

Murdock rubbed his hands together anxiously and added, "Everything looks great, Jean."

"It should be," she said, "I added an extra ingredient in the chicken that I think our friend the colonel should really enjoy."

Aha, so it _was_ in the chicken. However Decker knew that in no way implied that the rest of the food would be any safer. He watched in nothing short of shock as Murdock and his wife ate the food like nothing was wrong with it, apparently they were both good actors.

"What's the matter, Decker, is something wrong with yours?" Jean asked, "Murdock, switch your plate with him."

"No thanks," he grabbed his plate before Murdock could take it away. Somehow he could just see her figuring a way to measure out the bleach perfectly so it remained in the food that was still on Murdock's plate but not necessarily in what he'd already eaten.

"You're certainly the weird one," Jean told him, "I spend all afternoon cooking this chicken and you don't want any part of it, what's the matter, you a vegetarian?"

"No," he answered, "I'm just not hungry."

"Fine, more for us," Murdock said as he picked up Decker's plate and scooped the food onto his own.

Decker watched them both with the utmost scrutiny to make sure that they weren't pulling his leg; he watched to make sure nobody used any sleight of hand to make one part of the meal disappear and another part replace it. As far as he could tell, there was none of that, they got through the meal with no trouble whatsoever. He couldn't figure it out, someway, somehow, one of them was trying to screw with him, and he couldn't figure it out but he wasn't about to let them have the satisfaction of knowing they were getting to him either.

* * *

The rain continued into the night and made for a dreary atmosphere both inside and out; Jean had offered to put Decker up in one of the guest rooms for the night since it seemed obvious he would be staying with them as he didn't have any choice. He was reluctant to stay in a place that he considered to be as normal as the funhouse in Coney Island but had to agree that he didn't have a lot of options right about now. Once Jean specifically assigned a room for him he took the whole place apart, still searching for any little piece of evidence that would confirm that the A-Team had been here recently. But his search turned up empty and he was starting to realize he may have to admit defeat on this one, much as it would kill him to do that.

He had no recollection of lying down or falling asleep, but the next thing he was aware of, there was a strange noise blaring in his skull and his first instinct was to jump out of bed and get his gun. Once his feet touched the ground he remembered where he was and realized the noise he heard was somebody pounding the keys on a piano downstairs and doing one God awful rendition of something resembling music. With the day he'd already had this was getting to be too much, but damned if he was going to admit it, instead he was going downstairs to shut up whoever was making the racket.

"Hold your cards up higher, Murdock," Jean said as she and he sat on the couch playing a game, "I can't see where I marked them."

Decker came marching into the room and he asked flat out, "Alright, who did it?"

"Did what?" Murdock asked.

"Said what?" Jean added, "I thought you would be asleep by now."

"I was," Decker told them as he went over to the couch, "Until I heard that music that sounds like a cat being rammed through a trash masher.'

"Music?" Murdock asked.

"Music?" Jean repeated.

They both leaned towards Decker and asked him, "What music?"

"That piano," Decker said, and then it hit him, but not as fast as it clearly had the others. By the time he'd come down the stairs the music had already stopped and now he didn't hear anything.

Jean was the first to point into the dining room and point out, "What piano? I don't have a piano in this house, never had, I don't know how to play one."

Decker doubled back into the dining room and saw that Jean was right, there was no piano in the house. Where the hell then had the music come from? He turned back towards them and asked, "Do you have a radio?"

"Yeah but you don't get any piano music on there either," Jean answered as she put a card down on the pile between she and Murdock, "All you get is the head banger stations until 3 A.M."

Decker was left scratching his head on this one. Of course he knew that they were just trying to gaslight him, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out how they were doing it. He was halfway back to his room when he heard another bout of music playing, this one wasn't a piano though, it sounded like a full band; he heard half a dozen horns and a big bass drum, and he wasn't sure but maybe a large pair of cymbals as well. He darted down the stairs again and ran back into the living room; this time the music was still playing, but Jean and Murdock both looked like they couldn't hear it.

"Alright, what is _that_?" Decker wanted to know.

They looked up from their cards and asked him, "What's what?"

"That strange music, don't tell me you don't hear it!"

They looked at each other and shrugged and just returned their attention to their card game.

"I _know_ there's music playing around here somewhere," Decker told them as he started going around the room, looking for a hidden radio or tape recorder or something playing, "And when I find it I'm going to…" he felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck. He stood right next to the open air vent and the music was coming directly from down the vent.

"It's here!" he announced, "It's coming up from the cellar."

"Music in the cellar?" Jean asked, "Whoever heard of such a thing."

"Maybe it's mice," Murdock suggested.

"Mice don't play music," she said.

"Oh no?" Murdock asked, "Didn't you ever hear of the old maestro?"

"It's coming down from in the furnace," Decker told them.

Jean rolled her eyes at Murdock and said, "_Now_ he's hearing music in the furnace." She got up from the couch and said, "Mr. Decker, I do believe your little bird brain has finally gone bye-bye. Murdock, get on the phone to the V.A. and tell them we've got one of their boys here, tell them to send the paddy wagon and a butterfly net."

"Right-o," Murdock hopped to his feet.

"Don't go near that phone!" Decker told him. But Murdock already had the receiver in his hand, Decker took it from him and put it to his ear to see if anybody was on the line yet; instead he heard something that sounded like a fire bell, followed by a couple of old sirens.

"What the hell is wrong with this phone?" Decker pressed the plunger on it a couple of times to break the connection and when he listened again this time he heard somebody on the line, "Acme Window Cleaners, how can I help you?"

"Who the hell is this?" Decker wanted to know.

"This is the Acme Window Cleaner company of Walla Walla, Washington, who is this?" the voice replied.

Decker slammed down the receiver.

* * *

In the house next door, B.A. and Face were just about to hit the floor from laughing so hard once Decker hung up the phone; Hannibal managed to restrain himself a bit more but he had a grin from ear to ear.

"I do believe Decker's marbles are starting to scatter," Hannibal said.

"Hannibal, where did you ever get an idea like that?" Face wanted to know.

"From a movie I saw once when I ditched school," he answered with a mischievous grin.

Face threw his head back and laughed, "So what's next?"

"Next comes the harder part," Hannibal said, "We're going to have to actually get in the house for this one."

"But how're we going to do that without Decker spotting us?" Face asked him.

Hannibal used his binoculars to see in through the open blind of one of the windows where the lights were on and he saw that Decker had already taken the bait and was getting a glass of water; using the glass that Hannibal had been careful to line the bottom of with a sleeping pill crushed so fine that the powder could hardly be seen, and it was obvious Decker was not paying attention to it as he filled it up.

"In about an hour, Decker should be off to dreamland, that'll be our chance to get over there and get things ready for the third step," Hannibal said, "In the meantime we get the equipment ready."

As the hour passed, Hannibal kept watching the house next door for any sign that something was up; he saw that Decker was nowhere to be seen, presumably because he'd gone back to the guest room for the night. After a while he couldn't see Murdock or Jean anywhere either, and some of the lights downstairs went off, and when the hour was up, he, Face and B.A., with their supplies in hand, came out of hiding and made their way across in the rain to Jean's house. The door had been unlocked and they let themselves in and split up throughout the house. Hannibal quietly made his way up the stairs and made sure the coast was clear. All was quiet in Decker's room, and the same could be said for the main bedroom. Curiosity got the better of Hannibal and he just had to take a look inside. He turned the knob and pushed the door opened and looked in to see if Murdock and Jean were asleep.

It was dark inside but Hannibal saw all that he needed to see; he felt a combination of pride and happiness welling up inside of him and he decided that congratulations were in order for the pilot. Jean was asleep on the left side of the bed lying on her stomach with her head turned to the left and one arm hanging over the edge, and Murdock's body was draped over hers, his left arm was wrapped around her and his right hand was shoved under the pillows on the right side of the bed. So far this marriage seemed to be off to a good start, but as Hannibal continued to gaze in at the sleeping couple, he realized exactly _what_ he was seeing. Murdock had almost perfectly covered Jean's body with his own, and he had one hand on her to make sure she stayed with him, and Hannibal was sure if he could get over to the other side of the bed and lift up the pillow he'd find a gun clenched in Murdock's hand.

This, Hannibal knew, was not merely routine, it was obvious that Murdock was taking his role as Jean's husband very seriously, and doing everything possible to protect her, but from what, or whom? That was what Hannibal wasn't sure about. From Decker? Unlikely, Hannibal knew that he'd come close a few times to smacking Jean around today, but that was hardly call for shooting the man. Someone else then? Perhaps this unknown MP or imposter MP who was responsible for Decker's sudden break in working solo? It could be, as far as that one went they still had no idea what they were dealing with or even who to look for. He didn't really think that anybody on that side of the military would have any reason to be gunning for Jean but, he'd been wrong before even if he wouldn't admit it, and none of them was willing to take the risk. He left them alone and quietly closed the door behind them, they would be getting up soon enough, but first they had to get things ready for Decker.

* * *

Decker did remember going back to his room later in the night, and that was all that he remembered before he about fell out of bed with a pounding heart up in his throat. Once he calmed down he realized that the pounding he was hearing was a bass drum and it sounded like somebody was beating it going up and down the hallway outside his door. His mind was foggy and his vision was slightly blurred but he managed to get to the door and throw it open; and when he did he stepped outside and saw nobody, and noticed that the pounding had stopped.

Now Decker was starting to reconsider what this all meant; maybe they _weren't_ trying to gaslight him, maybe he was just finally starting to lose it from all this continuous hunting of the A-Team, maybe it _was_ slowly starting to drive him crazy. Hannibal Smith was his Moby Dick, he realized. He turned around and started to head back to bed, and was almost beyond the point of caring what happened next, but all the same he couldn't resist turning around and running back to the door when he heard a train's horn blowing outside the door.

"What the hell is going on in this house?" he demanded to know as he ran out into the hall, and a second later lost his footing and tripped over the toy train passing by on a set of tracks laid out right by the door. He groaned and placed his hands over the first part of his body that he recognized as being in pain, then he heard the lights come on and heard two sets of feet coming towards him.

"Really, Decker," Jean said, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a man your age, of your rank and integrity, playing with toy trains."

Decker grumbled a couple dozen choice words for her as he slowly got back to his feet and looked at she and Murdock and demanded to know, "Who put that there?"

"Put what where?" Murdock asked.

"The train, the toy…" Decker turned back to where he had tripped and was starting to worry his hold on sanity was starting to slip, the train and its tracks were gone.

"What train?" Jean asked.

Decker turned back and glared at her and warned her, "Now don't you start that again."

"Start what again?"

Decker knew in the deep recesses of his mind that this was all just an elaborate trick to try and make him think that he was going crazy, but even he had to admit in order for anybody to pull all of this off so elaborately and so perfectly, without once giving anything away, it was almost impossible. _Almost_, but he knew one man who was just conniving enough to pull it off, Hannibal Smith.

"Smith is here, where is he?"

"Decker, I don't know what you're talking about," Jean said again, "_Who_ is Smith?"

"You know damn well who he is," Decker told her, "And unless you want to be held on charges of aiding and abetting you'll tell me where he is."

"Now _how_," Jean asked, "Can I tell you where someone is who I have never met?"

"I know he's here," Decker said, "And I'm going to find him, and you two are coming with me."

"Oh joy," Jean dryly remarked to Murdock, "I get the feeling he would've done well in Dog Day Afternoon."

So once again they all made the rounds checking each and every room for any sign of Hannibal, B.A. or Face, and always came up empty. They came to the last spare room on the second floor and while Decker searched behind the door, Murdock went over to the closet, opened it a crack and slammed it shut, declaring, "Well they're not in there."

"Nice try, Murdock, get out of the way," Decker told him as he moved to the closet.

"You don't want to do that," Murdock advised him.

However Decker didn't listen, so he threw the closet door open and the green macaw flew out at him and caused him to fall back again.

"Why didn't you stuff _that_ bird for dinner?" he asked as he got up.

"I told you they weren't there," Murdock told him, feigning innocence.

"Oh shut up," Decker warned him, "I'm getting tired of this whole thing."

"Good, then get out of here," Jean told him, pointing towards the door, "And never darken my towels again."

Decker was just about ready to knock her through a wall when something suddenly occurred to him; the sound of rain beating against the house had ended some time ago, the rain had stopped, and a new idea occurred to him. Murdock and Jean followed him down the stairs and out the back door as he strode over to the garage and opened the door and turned on the lights, once again revealing nothing out of the ordinary and nobody inside who shouldn't be.

"Lose something, Decker?" Murdock asked.

"They're around here somewhere, I know it," he said as he kicked over the boxes and looked along the walls.

"He is losing it," Jean told Murdock, "He is damn well losing whatever mind he had."

Decker heard her comment and was starting to wonder it himself, but he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing that. He gave up on the garage and went out, and then stormed around behind the garage to the metal tool shed, one place that he had forgotten to check earlier. Decker put his ear to the door and didn't hear anybody but he did hear some movement inside, he kicked the door in and was met with a garden rake falling and hitting him on the head.

"Are you ready to give up yet?" Jean asked him.

"No," Decker answered as he tossed the rake aside and also jerked out a couple of shovels, a sledgehammer and a scythe shaped garden hoe and saw that nobody was in there either. Taking care not to slip in the mud or step in any of the lake sized puddles that now filled the yard, he made his way around to the side yard and the front, and went back into the house, scratching his head and trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and how it was.

"Well," Jean said as she and Murdock came in through the back door and just about collided with him when he returned to the kitchen, "Since you got the whole household up and have taken us all on this wild goose chase, and _still_ come up with nothing, why don't you just drink your milk and go to bed finally?"

Decker turned to her and asked, "What milk?"

"That milk," Murdock pointed to a glass on the table, "The one you've been harping on about all night that you wanted. Now you're _not_ going to say that now that you have it you don't want it, are you?"

"I never…" the gears were turning in his head again, "Nice try, Murdock, but I'm not stupid enough to fall for that." He picked up the glass of milk and tossed the contents down the drain.

Murdock and Jean took a step back and closed their eyes when they heard the sudden commotion, and when they looked again and saw Decker lying on the floor surrounded by the large pots and pans from the cupboards under the counter, Jean commented, "No, but you _are_ dumb enough to activate the trip wire running a line directly to the Paul Revere collection."

The back door opened and Hannibal stepped in, "Was there ever any doubt?"

"I suppose not but it sure took long enough," she told him, "Where're the others?"

"Here we are," Face answered as he and B.A. entered through the kitchen doorway, Face lugging the toy train and all its track pieces in his arms.

"So what're you going to do with him now?" Jean asked, "The drunk tank will only hold him a couple of days before he can prove who he is again."

"That's true," Hannibal said, "_However_, if we dump him off in a drunk tank in a town that's about 2,000 miles away, it'll take Decker a little longer than usual to get back here."

"How're you going to do that?" Jean asked, and then the answer hit her and she turned and glanced over at Murdock, who only smiled in anticipation.

* * *

They had a short time to put it all together but Face was able to get them a gurney, an oxygen tank and face mask, the right clothes and papers to pass Hannibal and himself off as doctors _and_ a plane to fly them clear out of the state and over to Iowa or some place where Decker would have one hell of a time working his way back to Los Angeles. It had been at Hannibal's insistence that Jean come with them since he didn't want to take a chance on anything happening to her while they were disposing of Decker. There was still the matter of somebody lurking around who wanted to kill Decker and there was no telling just how far he'd be willing to go or who else he might take down in the attempt.

"It's too bad we couldn't get B.A. to come along with us," Jean noted shortly after takeoff.

"Yeah but then we would've needed _two_ gurneys," Face remarked as they gazed down at Decker who was still blissfully unconscious and unaware of his surroundings.

"Life with you guys is never boring," she commented as she went to join Murdock in the cockpit, "How' we doing, Murdock?"

"Well we won't be getting home to go to sleep until tomorrow morning," he told her, "I figure we should be landing within three hours."

"What if Decker wakes up before that?" Jean asked.

"Don't worry," he told her, "Hannibal always keeps a shot of B.A.'s night-night juice on hand in case of an emergency."

Jean sat down in the seat beside him and didn't pay attention to his flying or what the instruments were reading or anything. She closed her eyes for a minute and almost fell asleep, when she suddenly opened her eyes and said out of the blue to him, "By the way, have I told you I think you're doing a great job as a husband?"

Murdock just looked over towards her and laughed.


	20. Chapter 20

Murdock was right, after dropping Decker off in the outskirts of a small town in Iowa, then getting the plane refueled, and getting back to California, it was the next morning and by the time they got back to Jean's house, everybody was ready to go to sleep; Face fell asleep on the couch as soon as he sat down on it, Hannibal did the same thing in a recliner next to the couch, B.A. had watched the house all night and now that everybody was back he went to sleep in his assigned guest room. Jean and Murdock were the only ones with the strength to make it up the stairs and into her room before dropping on the bed and succumbing to exhaustion. They were both practically asleep as soon as they hit the mattress, but Jean managed to open her eyes and look over to the right side of the bed and saw Murdock with his eyes closed and he seemed to be oblivious to everything around him. Jean reached over and knocked on his forehead and he said, "Come in," as he opened his eyes again.

"Do you think Decker's going to come back here?" she asked.

Murdock rubbed his eyes and grumbled a response, "I doubt if when Decker wakes up he's going to even know who he is. All things considered he got put through a really tight wringer last night."

"Fine with me," she replied, "If I never see him again, it'll be too soon. What's his problem anyway?"

"It's a long and sordid story," Murdock tried to explain, "And nobody could tell it better than Hannibal because Decker's real beef is with him, the rest of us are just caraway seeds on the Kaiser roll."

"You know, Murdock, I'd still like to kill him," Jean said.

"I know," he replied, "It would be very easy to actually do it but it's better that we don't, we have enough problems on our hands without murder being added to the list."

Jean closed her eyes and said more in her throat than actually out loud, "Who said anything about you?"

Murdock knew where she was going with that line of questioning and he pointed out, "It wouldn't work, you're married to me, remember? You're a part of this now, meaning you have to let him live, hard as it is to let him go until the next time."

Jean acted as if she was considering this before she finally said, "I suppose for you, anything could be possible, but I'm making no promises."

"Oh just one," Murdock told her as he sat up on his knees and looked at her, "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Promise me that when the others go back to their own places, we'll always have room here for them," he said, "You know Face is always worried, because we get a lot of clients that can't afford our rates, that eventually it's going to come to a matter of them being on the street, and I always told him there'd be plenty of room for them at the V.A. if that happened. Well, now that they released me, I want them to know the offer's still good, just the address is different."

Jean laughed at him and answered, "Sure, Murdock, we'll always have room here for the three of them. They _are_ your family after all."

Murdock detected a note of something in her voice when she said that, he couldn't tell what it was but he suddenly felt that he couldn't stress enough, "Well they're yours now too."

Jean shook her head, "No, I don't think so, I don't think they'll have me. Hannibal's doing his best to be supportive but it only goes so far you know, and as to the others…" she shrugged, "Hannibal mentioned women being bad luck because they drive a wedge between a man and his friends, his team, his family, I'll be damned if I'm going to do that, but it doesn't change the fact that they think this was a bad idea."

Murdock waved it off and told her, "You just need to know them like I do, they _always_ think something is a bad idea, even when it works they will swear up and down that it was a bad idea. Trust me, you learn to get used to it after a while."

"I hope you're right, Murdock," she replied, "I already told them that I had no intention of coming between you guys, but I don't think they believe me."

"It's just a lot for them to take in all at once," he assured her, "In a few days they'll come around, you'll see."

"Yeah well," she said, "Whether they do or not, they can get over it because I'm not backing down from this. I've already said my piece, and I'm _not_ going anywhere. You and I are married, and they can deal with it."

"You're sounding like a wife already," he told her.

Jean turned on her side to look at him and she said, "Tell me something, Murdock, do you believe it's really possible for someone to fall in love at first sight?"

"Oh sure," he answered.

She sat up and asked him, "Did it ever happen with you?"

He sat up and nodded, "Of course, plenty of times."

"Did it also happen when you saw Amy?" she asked.

"Sure," he answered, "Of course I've always been a sucker for a pretty girl."

"I thought that was Face's job," she replied.

"Oh it is for any red blooded man, believe me," he told her, "Although to be honest I've always found that the best relationships are made when you have to go around the block a few times and have a few more looks instead of just falling for it the first time."

"Well let me ask you a question," she said to him, "If the topic of marriage _hadn't_ come up and it wasn't your security net for when Decker came nosing around, would you still want to be stuck with me?"

He looked at her solemnly and it was obvious he hadn't anticipated this question and didn't have an answer automatically prepared for her. Finally he said to her, "I love you, Jean, we both knew going into this that the marriage was just a cover but I can't accept it as being _only_ that; I said I do, and I am, I take my role as your husband very seriously, even though I know in reality very little has changed from before we were married, if that makes any sense."

"I never asked you to," she said.

"I know you didn't, that's why it's so important to me," he explained, "I've never been married before and now that I am I want to do it right, even if it's just a sham, this is an opportunity I never had before. But you're stuck with me now too, and I want to try and make this as painless for you as is possible…" he started gesturing with his hands as he tried to think how to put this, "On the Team, I know where I belong, I know I fit in, we all get along great, but _this_ is something new for me, I've never lived with a woman before." He smiled at her sheepishly and added, "But I'm sure enjoying it."

Jean smiled in return and said, "Well I have no experience to go on but I think you're doing a fine job as a husband…I'd like to think I know you well enough to know that this is real and you're not deliberately trying to be something different for my benefit."

"Me? Never," Murdock shook his head, "You are stuck with the real thing."

"Good," she replied, "That's the way I want it."

A thought occurred to Murdock and he asked her, "Incidentally, what was the first thing going through your mind when you met me?"

"What, you mean _after_ I poisoned you?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Jean got up from the bed and walked over to the window with her back to Murdock; he watched her cross over to the other side of the room and waited to hear her answer.

"I did like you, even though I acted like I hated the whole lot of you…I don't know, maybe after you and Face and I had the hotel room to ourselves and we were drinking and being honest with one another, maybe that was when I realized that I liked you better than all the rest."

"But you didn't love me," he said, guessing but on the border of knowing.

Jean hung her head low and said, "It wouldn't have done any good if I had…I knew back then what the score was too. I knew that you guys would be going back to Los Angeles as soon as the mission was over, and I'd never see you again, so there wouldn't have been any point if I _had_ fallen in love with you back then. I had no idea I'd be living three miles from you guys a year later, or maybe I would've said something back then, or maybe I wouldn't. I'm like you, Murdock, I love you, I love the others, I don't know where to draw the line between the camaraderie with them, and with you. Like you, I really can't see this being any different than when we were together _before_ we got married. Some things have changed but for the most part I'd say it's a safe bet that ours is still as platonic a relationship as it is with the rest of the Team, I don't know if that's supposed to be a good basis for a marriage or not but I think it can work." She turned on her heel and slowly walked back towards the bed and crawled on top of her own side.

"I think it can too," Murdock told her, "Maybe even better than the traditional route for a marriage, maybe that's the way to keep a good thing going, instead of everything goes sour and divorce ensues, or homicide, whichever occurs first and is the least messy."

Jean agreed and commented, "We're in this together now, we might as well make the most of it."

"That reminds me," Murdock pushed the covers back and got up and went over to the boxes of his belongings and started rummaging through them.

"What're you looking for?" Jean asked, watching him through eyes half closed that weren't able to stay open for much longer.

"Well if we're going to do this," Murdock told her, "Might as well make it official and do it right." He found what he was looking for and picked up his Bogey bear and held it tight in his arms for a second before he took it over to Jean's dresser and set Bogey down next to her own teddy bear. He turned and saw the curious look on her face and he explained, "His and hers."

* * *

Murdock and Jean were the last ones to fall asleep and would also be the last ones to wake up in the afternoon. It was going on 3 P.M. when Face decided to take a quick peek for himself and he carefully opened the bedroom door and looked in and saw that the two were still asleep. Though they each stayed on their own sides of the bed respectively, Face could see that Murdock had reached over to the other side and had his hand tangled in the hair that was starting to grow back on Jean's head. And likewise Face also saw that Jean had reached over and had Murdock's other hand in a death grip with one of her own. He dared not make a sound lest he wake them up so he was careful to make sure the door made no noise as he pulled it shut and he slipped back down the stairs to the living room and collapsed in a chair beside Hannibal.

"Something the matter, Face?" he asked.

"I just can't believe it, Hannibal," Face told him.

"What?"

"All of this…Murdock actually being married to that psychopath upstairs. As if him actually being declared sane and discharged wasn't enough to deal with, now it's this."

Hannibal put his feet up on the coffee table and looked nonchalant about the whole thing as he casually smoked his cigar and he said to Face, "I don't see it as being all that hard to understand, it's just a lot to take in altogether."

"Yeah well, I still don't like it, Hannibal," Face told him, "I just don't like this whole thing."

Hannibal turned to the side and chuckled lightly under his breath, Face turned to look at him and asked, "What is it?"

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking about something from when I was a kid," Hannibal answered.

Face rolled his eyes and groaned, "Not another one of those stories."

"Yes, Face," Hannibal replied matter-of-factly, "Another one of _those_ stories. I was remembering when I was a kid, I went to see Tarzan at the theater, and I remember rolling my eyes at the movie because I thought it was really stupid."

"Why?" Face asked curiously.

"Oh that whole 'Me Tarzan, you Jane' stuff…anybody who has ever read Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel knows no such thing ever happened…for somebody who was raised by apes his whole life, Tarzan was a very intelligent person, he learned how to read and write, and so when he first saw Jane he wrote her a note proclaiming, 'I am Tarzan of the Apes, _you_ are Jane Porter, I saw it on your letter'."

Face wasn't getting the point and point blank asked Hannibal, "So what?"

"I'm _getting_ to the point, hang on," Hannibal told him, "I remember a lot of the movies I saw as a kid, and serials, and the comics that they had back then…let's see, I remember Bomba the Jungle Boy, and Buck Rogers, and The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, and the Dead End Kids, lot of the movies I can't even remember the names of but I remember a lot of times it would be two guys, usually young men, out in the jungle or on a ranch, or on another planet or an underwater kingdom, something far out like that, they spend the whole movie, or the whole 15 chapters together, knocking the daylights out of the villains and figuring out how to get the job done so they could go home, or onto something bigger."

Face still didn't get the point and he was gesturing with his hands and elaborated with a loud, "And? Come on, Hannibal, what's the point here?"

"In every one of those movies, it was always two guys together, neither one of them ever wanted _anything_ to do with any girl and wouldn't be caught dead in the company of one. For some reason back then, they kept the role of a girlfriend in the back corner for an older guy, but the young men had absolutely _no_ interest in women, certainly not enough for one of them to actually be involved with someone. The only time it was acceptable to have one around, was she would have to be the sister of one of the two guys, and they weren't happy about that either, but they let her tag along. But then for some reason, all that changed, somewhere during the 1940s they changed it so every guy and his brother was dying to be with a girl, even if having her along completely ruined the storyline, and then it went from that over the years to those dreadful beach movies from the 60s."

"Hannibal, you lost me 3 times," Face told him, "What's the point?"

Hannibal grinned at him, reveling in being able to drive the lieutenant crazy, and said, "Besides the fact that I think the older movies were better when it was just the guys? My point is you are reminding me a lot of the boys from those old movies, I get the idea that you think having Jean married to Murdock is only going to get in the way of our plans."

Face scratched his head as he thought about it and reluctantly said, "Well…" but he didn't finish whatever he was thinking about.

Hannibal knew he'd hit onto something, but he wanted to see how deep it went. "What's on your mind, Face?"

"What if it does, Hannibal?" he asked, "We can't say for certain one way or another, none of us has _ever_ been married, so we don't know what's going to come out of this, but what if it does?"

Aha, Hannibal could see how the gears turned in Face's head and he bit down on his cigar and said, "We were starting to question if Murdock ever got released, if he'd still want to be around us _then_, but now he's also already got a wife and a place of his own to stay at, and that seems to cement the idea that he won't."

"But you don't think that's the case," Face was starting to see where this was going.

"No," Hannibal shook his head, "I think this is going to work out for everybody, maybe being married _is_ the best thing for Murdock right now, but Jean's right, you know Murdock won't let it interfere with our work."

"Or anything else?" Face asked.

Hannibal opened his mouth to reply and stopped when a light bulb went off in his head, "Oh I see, that's what this is about, you think now that Murdock's married, he won't want to be around us when duty _doesn't_ call?"

Face shrugged and didn't say anything.

"I wouldn't worry, Face," Hannibal told him, "Murdock might love Jean but unfortunately for her, his bond with us runs far deeper, and he knows it."

"Well tell me something, Hannibal," Face said, "Do you really think that this is real? That it's going to last?"

Hannibal smirked and told him, "I'm getting a head start on my New Year's resolution to be more optimistic."

"_More_ optimistic?" Face repeated.

Hannibal chuckled and told him, "I believe in all good things, so if this marriage is meant to last, it will, it's as simple as that."

"You're forgetting something, Hannibal," Face reminded him, "When Murdock's involved, _nothing_ is simple."

* * *

Hannibal opened the door and turned on the light; Face's eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness and he looked at the shelves on the other side of the room that were filled with film reels in cans.

"Remind me again, Hannibal, just _why_ we had to break into the movie studio in the middle of the night?" he asked.

"I'm looking for a couple of films," Hannibal told him as he took a piece of paper out of his pocket and started scanning over the titles on the film cans.

"And you couldn't just check the late show?" Face asked.

"I'm looking for the two other movies Jean has done stunts for," Hannibal said, "I want to see if she can even be spotted in them."

"How come?"

"I have an idea," was all Hannibal was going to say on the matter.

"Alright," Face groaned, "What're the names of the films?"

"One is 'The Shrieking Sheik', and the other is 'Bloodbath at 11', those are the only two movies Jean did stunts for that have actually been finished, the rest are still between shooting and post production."

"And once we find them," Face said, "_What_ are we going to do with them?"

"We're going to watch them, Face," Hannibal explained.

"Oh joy," Face dryly remarked, "Just how I wanted to spend my evening."

It took a while of sorting through all the cans on the shelves but they finally found the two films that Hannibal had mentioned. They got a projector set up and spent three hours watching two extremely bad movies that their only saving grace was the fight scenes in each of them.

"You can't even tell which one of them she is," Face said.

"Wait a minute, there!" Hannibal pointed, "Up on the balcony, like Murdock said."

They watched as Jean jumped off the balcony, landed square on a man's back and the two fell to the floor.

"Have to admit, it's quite a way to break into movies," Face conceded, "Although I'd think with an entrance like that, that there'd be an easier way to get to the front of the line."

"Maybe there is," Hannibal said.

Uh oh. Face knew Hannibal well enough to know that that tone matched perfectly with…he turned his head to see, yep, Hannibal's trademark grin was back again. "What's going through your head, Hannibal?"

"I've got an idea," he said, "But we're going to have to get our hands on that film that Murdock's been shooting."

* * *

The next night after production died down for the evening and everybody went home, Hannibal and Face returned to the studio, with Murdock and his film in tow, and they went to the editing room.

"I still don't know that I get what you're saying, Colonel," he said as he hugged the film can against his chest like it was a teddy bear.

"What I'm saying, Murdock," Hannibal told him, "Is I've got a plan as to how we can help Jean really break out in the movie business, and she won't have to do anything other than what she already has. Now we're going to start with your film for a starting point and work our way up from there."

"How?" Murdock asked as he gave the film up to Hannibal.

"It's a very long, drawn out process, Murdock," Face said, "And if I do say so myself, borderline crazy."

"Well that sounds perfect," Murdock said, "But what is it?"

"Very simple," Hannibal explained, "We take the film you shot, and take footage from other old films that are canned up and sitting on the shelves, so we have enough footage to take up the time for a full length picture, and just very loosely tie it all in together, and then we put in the credits and proclaim Jean to be a big star just getting started in her career. And then we make about a thousand copies of the film and send them out to movie theaters all over the country, everybody sees her, everybody knows what she can do, and she's got it made."

"It's insane enough that it just _could_ work, Colonel," Murdock said proudly, "What did you have in mind?"

"I'll show you," Hannibal said.

Everybody knew that in animation it took 24 separate pictures to make up one second of a cartoon, well they found out that making a movie from cuts and edits was not much faster, it took an hour to get enough footage together to show Murdock what Hannibal had planned. He'd taken the footage of Jean shoving Decker out of the helicopter and the first couple of seconds showing him plummeting towards the river, then taken that film out and added some from an old screwball comedy showing a man jumping off a bridge with a rope tied around his feet so he got jerked back just a few seconds before hitting the ground; and as the man started to fall again, that film was stopped, then taken out and replaced with another old film showing somebody landing on a large trampoline in the middle of the yard and bouncing on it once and bouncing clear over the side and making a crash landing over a hedge. Murdock was already on the floor laughing at the end result of the little bit of editing they'd gotten done.

"That's brilliant, Hannibal, evil genius stuff," he said as he got up.

"I have more planned," Hannibal told him.

"You do?" Face asked.

"Oh yes, I'm thinking of during the end credits putting a big notice in, a personal 'thank you' to Colonel Roderick Decker of the United States Army for his cooperation and support with this picture."

Both Face and Murdock slid down to the floor laughing again when he said that.

"Of course you know what the problem with that is, don't you?" Face asked Hannibal, "When do you think the last time was Decker ever went to a movie?"

However Hannibal was not going to be put off by that sudden thought, instead he looked at Face and said, "I'll have to make sure he gets a copy personally."

* * *

When they returned to Jean's house, they didn't announce their arrival since it was after two in the morning, they sneaked in the back door and as they did they could hear a loud commotion coming from the living room; they could hear Jean was shouting at somebody. They went to see what the matter was but saw that there wasn't anybody there, instead Jean was yelling at somebody on the phone; she had her back to them and didn't seem to be aware of their presence.

"_Look_, Crowley," she told the person on the other end, "You guys are already in this mess and if the times comes I have to call on you again, both of you better be ready at a moment's notice, you got me?" There was a pause as the man on the other end of the line responded and she added, a bit more calmly now, "Alright…just remember, if I need help I'm calling on you two, you understand? Okay…I'll see you at the studio, uh huh…goodnight." She hung up the phone and stood up, turned around, and about had a heart attack when she saw three men standing in the doorway.

"Geez, don't do that to a person," she said as she clutched her chest, "Where were you?"

"Had to pick up some more cigars," Hannibal said by way of an answer as he walked past her, "Problems?"

"Nothing I can't handle," she insisted, "Just a little disagreement with one of my fellow stuntmen." She went over to the other two men and poked Murdock in the stomach and asked him, "And what were _you_ doing out at 2 in the morning?"

"I had to take Billy for a walk," he answered.

Jean moved to Face and said to him, "And naturally you tagged along with them."

"Naturally," Face replied.

"Are you alright, Jean?" Murdock asked her.

"Yeah I'm fine," she said as she rubbed her hands over her face and up her forehead, "It's been a long night."

"Meanwhile," Murdock looked around the room, "Where is the big angry mudsucker?"

"He went to bed two hours ago," she answered, "It's been a long night for everybody, and I for one just want to go to bed and forget that today ever happened."

Murdock reached over and put his hand on her shoulder but she pulled away from him just as quick as he had, "Are you alright, Jean?"

"Yeah I'm fine," she answered, a bit quickly for his comfort, "I'm just tired."

Face waited until she was out of the room and upstairs where she couldn't hear them, and he turned to Murdock and said, "I guess the honeymoon's over."

Murdock's gaze climbed to the ceiling and he grimaced in anticipation of what might come next when he went upstairs to see her.

* * *

Murdock was fully confident that it was too early in the marriage for Jean to try beating him over the head with the age old rolling pin, still he felt it was best that he give her fair warning that he was coming up. He called out the number of every step he stood on so she would know he was getting closer, then he called out that he was coming over to the door and would be coming in. He braced himself in anticipation of her throwing something at his head and so slowly opened the door and stuck it in to see her; and was more than mildly relieved to see she was sitting on the bed and wasn't wielding anything heavy or sharp.

"Jean, you alright?" he asked as he pushed the door open and stepped in.

She nodded tiredly and said, "Yeah, Murdock, I'm alright…you?"

He froze in mid-step at that one. She didn't seem to get what he meant. "I'm fine," he answered, "Did something happen while we were gone?"

"No," she answered and rubbed one eye, "Just been a long night and I just want to go to sleep and forget all about it, don't you ever have days like that?"

"More like nights like that," he answered as he went over to the bed, "Especially at the V.A., but this isn't anything like that, is it?"

She shook her head, "I think if I can just get some sleep I'll be alright in the morning."

There was something about what she said that didn't sit well with Murdock but he knew she wouldn't tell him what it meant, so he decided to just leave it alone for the time being. He grabbed his pajamas and went into the closet to change, and when he came back out he saw Jean had already fallen asleep on top of the bed. At least she had already changed for the night so that was one job out of the way; Murdock slid one arm under her and lifted her lower body up enough so he could pull the covers out from under her and get her tucked in on her side. When that was done he went over to his own side and pulled the other side of the covers down and crawled in alongside her. It was cool in the room tonight so he pulled the covers up tightly on both of them and lay close to her; Jean was already in so dead of a sleep that she didn't wake up or even move during all of it.

* * *

The next morning when they woke up it was obvious to Murdock that there was something that Jean hadn't told him about and without pressing too hard, he probed into the matter until she finally talked. His suspicions were correct, Face had been right, now that they had a couple of weeks on their marriage, the newness of it had worn off and now they were moving past the 'just married' stage into the next part where they started looking at the bigger picture.

"What does it all mean?" Jean asked rhetorically as she walked over to the bed and sat down at the foot of it, "Like I said before, you can't stay with me, and I can't go with you. We knew that in the beginning. Of course when you get down to it what _does_ it mean? A lot of married people run on work related long distance relationships, they turn out fine."

"This is true," Murdock said, "As anybody who juggles a military career with a wife can tell you."

An idea occurred to Jean and she told Murdock, "People always say a marriage license is just a piece of paper…that's what they say when they _don't_ marry, well it can work the other way around as well, right? Just because we're married doesn't _mean_ we're supposed to be together every minute of our lives. So, you can go your way, and I'll go mine, which leaves me right back where I started…but that could work just as well. Tell me something, Murdock, if you were newly discharged from the V.A. and _not_ married, where would you go?"

"I guess I'd move in with Hannibal or Face," he answered, "They're the most likely to let me stay with them."

"Maybe that's the better idea in the long run," Jean said as she stood up, "You belong with them, you've been friends with them for over 10 years. They're your family."

"So are you," Murdock told her.

Jean shook her head, "The Team is your family, and there's no room for a woman _or_ a fifth member on the A-Team. Maybe they're right, how can you be expected to divide your life and your loyalty between them, and me?"

Murdock stood up from the bed and went over to her and gripped her just under her shoulders to get his attention, but he never got a chance to say what he was going to, the bedroom door opened and Hannibal stood in the doorway and told them, "Come on downstairs, I've got an idea how we find out who Decker's new man is that's trying to sabotage him."

"Must we?" Jean asked, "Can't we just let nature take its course on that one and let him kill the cockroach?"

All the same, she and Murdock followed Hannibal down the stairs and joined Face and B.A. in the living room. After Hannibal had explained his plan, and everybody had their round of objections as to how insane it was and questioning if it would even work, everybody got up and followed Hannibal out to the van. But Jean stayed behind for a minute and she picked up the phone and dialed a number, and when the receiver was picked up on the other end she said only, "Crowley…it's time, get Kellerman and meet us at the studio."

* * *

By the time Decker got back to Los Angeles he was ready to put somebody's head through the wall. He decided not to repeat his previous mistake and, much as he regretted the decision, put the word out that the next time he had a lead on the A-Team, the MPs would be going with him. He couldn't put his finger on it but something had been amiss with them backing him ever since Crane had to be hospitalized for that grenade injury. Now at least Crane was back and he figured that would put things back to the way it had been before everything got weird on him. As soon as he set foot back in California he knew it wouldn't be _too_ long before he got another hook on the A-Team, he just didn't know it would be as soon as it was either.

A couple of days had passed since he announced his return to his men; he was reading the morning paper and he felt like he'd stumbled onto a goldmine. In the personals' section was a small ad specifically requesting the services of the A-Team asking them to come to room number so and so at such and such, as quickly as possible. He felt the ends of his mouth curling up into a slight smirk; Hannibal Smith was too smart to put something like this out there purely to lure Decker into a trap, this had to be the real deal. He had Crane come into his office and within 10 minutes the word was put out through the whole building and when he walked out the front door he had 30 armed MPs following behind him.

The problem Decker wasn't aware that he had was he was never too good to look over his own men and make sure there wasn't somebody in the bunch who didn't belong there; so on this day he especially didn't notice that there were four new faces in the military police crowd who didn't belong. Murdock, Jean, Peter Kellerman and Jason Crowley stood among the genuine articles in the same outfits with the same guns at their sides, they kept to the back and stayed in line, never saying a word or doing anything that would draw any attention to them. It was two men to each car so Murdock and Jean got in one, and Kellerman and Crowley took another; another thing Decker didn't know was that two of the army cars also didn't belong, Hannibal and the others had just fixed them up to look like the real deals. The radios in their cars had been fixed so they wouldn't work with any of the others except each other _and_ the van and Face's 'Vette, all the same everybody had agreed to communicate on a different station just to make sure Decker's ears didn't pick up their conversations. Jean was in the driver's seat and Murdock sat beside her with two rifles at his side and ready to use at a moment's notice.

"We're moving out, Colonel," Murdock said into his radio, "Are you guys ready?"

Hannibal stood beside the van with the radio clutched in his hand and the cord stretched out the open window until it was about ready to snap off. "We're ready, is everybody there ready?"

"Roger that," he heard Kellerman's response.

"Everything is looking A-Okay on this side, Colonel," Murdock added.

"Alright, so when're you guys going to be here?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock consulted his watch and said into the radio, "Should be 20 minutes, or 2,000 gallons whichever occurs first."

"We'll be waiting for you," Hannibal told them.

"That's what Decker's counting on," Jean said.

"_That's_ what _I'm_ counting on," Hannibal replied.

Murdock hung up the radio and looked at Jean, "We ready to move?"

Jean looked ahead and saw the other cars were starting up and starting to move and she said, "We're going…this must be what it feels like to be in a damn parade. Tell me, Murdock, do you think Hannibal's plan will work?"

"They always do," he answered.

"Not like he plans them to though," she reminded him.

"No, not usually," Murdock told her, "But they work and that's the important thing."

Jean kept her eyes on the road and said, "If you say so…"

* * *

"Here they come," Hannibal told B.A. and Face, "Get ready, and remember what you're supposed to do."

"Yeah, nothing…I don't like this, Hannibal," B.A. told him, "We' just standing here waiting for them to come and get us."

"I'm with him, Hannibal," Face added, "Somehow the idea of being a sitting duck has never sat well with me."

"What's the matter, don't you two have any faith in our captain?" Hannibal asked with a knowing smirk.

Both Face and B.A. groaned in response to the question.

They heard the sirens and saw the red spinning lights on Decker's car as he led the military convoy. The cars closed the gap between the long winding road they'd traveled down, and the space where the van was parked and the three men stood, in a matter of seconds. All the cars came to a screeching halt and for the most part were lined up alongside each other in almost perfect synchronization. Decker was the first one out of the car and Crane and the MPs followed suit and before they knew it, Hannibal, B.A. and Face had 20 guns aimed at them.

"It's over this time, Smith," Decker told him, "Your luck's run out."

"Oh really," Hannibal said as he lowered his cigar, "You know, Decker, you always knew how to spoil the fun."

"You won't be laughing for long when you're back in the stockade, rotting away for the rest of your natural lives," Decker told him.

"Gee," Face said a bit nervously but trying to keep his cool, "And I was hoping to see the Riviera this year."

Hannibal looked at the cars and noticed that the motorcade was short two of them; and he heard them coming from off in the distance. Somehow the others had managed to get off the path and out of sight without anybody noticing, and now here they came, and he knew what was going to happen next; so he found it especially hard not to grin like the cat that swallowed the canary as Decker was reading him the riot act.

"What are you smiling at, Smith?" Decker asked him.

The only answer he got was a blast of machine gunfire; he and the other MPs ducked when they heard the firing without being able to see where it was coming from, then Decker turned around and saw two army cars speeding towards them, each with somebody in the passenger seat half leaning out the open windows and opening fire at the MPs, one with a machine gun and one with an assault rifle.

"What the hell is going on!?" Decker wanted to know.

Murdock pulled himself far enough back into the car that Jean could see him signaling as he told her, "Turn more this way, I need a good shot at the cars."

Jean gripped the wheel and jerked it all the way to the right and stepped on the accelerator and Murdock made short work of the windows and some of the tires on the other cars. Glass went flying through the air in millions of little pieces and tires hissed as their newly made bullet holes ripped through them and they sank like stones. Some of the cars actually started smoking but all that mattered was that it was impossible for anybody to use them now and chase after them. Murdock dropped his gun on the car floor and picked up a grenade launcher, firing some custom made smoke bombs at Decker and his boys to create enough confusion that nobody could see the three members of the A-Team make off in the one remaining car still in working order, Decker's car. During the creation of the smoke bombs, Murdock had let the evil genius in him shine through and he had made the bombs out of hybrids connected with tear gas canisters, so it had become a double assault on the MPs as men were falling victim to the effects of the gas; half of them couldn't see and the other half were choking, and through it all Decker had only one thought racing through his mind. He was going to find Hannibal Smith and he was going to make him pay dearly for this.

* * *

Hannibal fixed the radio in the car they were driving so he could contact the others and he said, "Hey good work guys, but tell me something, Jean, where did you ever get the idea to bring your two friends in on this to help us?"

There was a crackle of static on the radio before he heard Jean come on and answer, "What's not all in a day's work for a stuntman?"

Hannibal chuckled and replied, "I guess you have a point there."

"Speaking of which, though," Jean looked over to the other car and said, "I think you guys' work is done here for the day, we really appreciate your help."

They heard Crowley come on the radio and remark, "No problem, Jean, but what do we do with the car?"

"Just leave it," Jean told him and nodded towards Murdock, "I'll take it and follow behind these guys."

"Okay."

Jean handed the radio back to Murdock and returned her attention to the road; she felt a momentary panic when everything became blurry and she couldn't see straight, she closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them again everything looked normal. She stepped on the brakes and threw it into park long enough for her to get out and Murdock to slide over and take over as the driver. The other car pulled up beside them and Jason and Peter got out and Jason tossed her the keys. Then they shed their MP uniforms they'd put on over their regular clothes and returned to their civilian look and decided to put as much distance between themselves and the cars that they could before the real MPs found them. Jean went back to Murdock's car and, leaning in the open passenger window, she told him, "You go on ahead and keep up with Hannibal, I'll catch up with you in a little while."

"Everything okay?" Murdock asked, noticing that over the day she'd been a little slow to respond to what they said and had a little trouble focusing on what she was supposed to be doing.

"Yeah," she said, "I just need to clear my head for a few minutes, then I'll be along."

"Alright but don't be gone long," Murdock told her as he put the car in gear and took off to catch up to the others.

* * *

"Crane," Decker, like everybody else, was slowly but finally recovering from the effects of the tear gas and was able to see things clearly again, and said to the captain, "Were you able to get a look at who was driving those other two cars?"

"Negative, sir," Crane answered.

"It's Murdock, I _know_ it is," Decker said, "Him and that wife of his."

"Sir?" Crane asked.

Decker looked at his captain and said, as sarcastically as a man like him could manage, "Oh didn't you hear the announcement, Crane? It seems that Captain Murdock has gotten himself discharged from the V.A. and gotten himself a little wife."

"I see, sir," Crane said, thinking back to the woman who had carjacked him a couple weeks ago.

"I know they're behind this assault, I just _know_ they are," Decker insisted.

"Yes sir," Crane agreed, "But Colonel…"

"What is it, Crane?"

"There were _four_ people in those cars, sir."

Decker blinked, then exploded, "WHAT!?" He couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to him before, but that was right, there had to be a driver in each car as well as a gunman. "FOUR of them!? Good God, what the hell is going on here?" He flashed on what Jean had told him about there being many people who helped the A-Team, other pilots, that it didn't stop at just three or four people but a whole bunch of them…but she couldn't _possibly_ have been telling the truth about that, could she? No, it couldn't be, but then who the hell were these two other people assisting them?

"Who were those two other people in the cars then?" he wondered out loud, "Who _are_ these people?"

While Decker was pondering that question, he was completely unaware that his head had officially become a target. Jean had doubled back to where they lost the MPs after she likewise managed to lose Murdock by convincing him to go on ahead without her; and she had taken her place in a vacant room in an apartment high above the street, with a high powered rifle with one very powerful scope that gave her perfect aim to blow the center of his brain to smithereens. As soon as Hannibal had told them about his plan to catch Decker and put the MPs out of the commission by sabotaging the cars, she had scouted out the area for herself and found a dozen empty apartments that would serve as the perfect position to assassinate somebody from with the right equipment.

"I told you I killed 20 men already, Decker, did you really think I was joking?" she quietly murmured to herself as she made sure the rifle was loaded and ready to go, it was. She resumed her aim and had him right where she wanted him.

She didn't care if the others were right and no good would come out of Decker's death, she had seen this man up close and personal too many times to be convinced that he should be allowed to live and continuously hunt Hannibal and the others to the end of the earth to haul them back in to the stockades. Sure, they could replace Decker, but maybe they'd luck out and his replacement would be somebody lower on the IQ totem pole, as highly regarded as Lynch had been once upon a time there had to be a hundred men in the army just like him and ready to fill the position in taking over to capture the A-Team. Of course when the Team found out what happened to Decker, they would know who was responsible, and she would deal with that when the time came; she'd already decided on that long ago, even though she knew everything she was giving up by doing this, she decided it was something that simply had to be done. And it had to be done fast because somebody else had a bounty out on Decker's head and was using the MPs as his cover, and Jean wasn't about to let somebody else have the satisfaction of killing him.

"Say goodnight, Decker," she said as her index finger reached for the trigger.

It would be a perfect shot; one bullet, and Decker's brains would splatter all over Crane and the other men standing close to him, one shot and he would drop and be dead before he hit the ground. One second, and he would be out of the A-Team's lives forever, but it never came. Jean felt something hit her on the back of the head and she groaned in pain and felt her arms toss the rifle up as she felt her body fall to the floor. She never saw who hit her because she blacked out as soon as she hit the carpet.


	21. Chapter 21

Hannibal walked out of the Federal Building with his arms loaded down with files and records and dumped them into the backseat of the car. "Well," he told Face and Murdock, "That ought to be all the files on the MPs working here, we ought to be able to find out which one of them doesn't belong. But I'd sure like to know where Jean is, _she_ was supposed to be the one to do this since she wouldn't draw as much attention as we would."

It didn't make much sense because half of the idea behind sending Murdock, Jean and the others in was so while passing themselves off as other MPs, while the real ones were starting to load up and move out, the others could gain access to the files kept on all the men working there. Jean had managed to retrieve them from their filing cabinets and stuff them in a safe place where nobody would look for them, and then double back and grab them later, but that hadn't happened.

"I just don't get it, Colonel," Murdock said, "She said she'd catch right up to us, something must be wrong."

Face looked at Hannibal and said, "You don't think Decker got her again, do you?"

"I don't know," Hannibal replied, "But we better double back there and see what we can find."

He reached into the car and grabbed the radio to contact B.A., he caught the sergeant up on what was going on and where they were going and told B.A. to stand by incase they needed him. He had a bad feeling about this.

They piled into the army car and drove back to the dead end street where they had ambushed the MPs to begin with, and by now the smoke had cleared and everybody was gone; it was impossible to tell that anybody had ever been here, except for the one army car stashed in the alley behind the apartment buildings.

"This is the car _we_ fixed up," Face realized, "She must be here."

They heard somebody moaning and they found Jean around the corner sitting on the curb with her hands pressed hard against her eyes.

"Jean, are you okay?" Hannibal asked as they rushed over to her. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands down so they could see her face, and he felt his heart jump up his throat, in the hour since they had last seen Jean she had grown two shades paler and looked sick.

"Somebody knocked me out," she weakly answered, and tried to reach around to touch the back of her head.

"Who would do that?" Face asked Hannibal, though he left out the second part of his question, who would knock her out and then leave her there instead of hauling her away?

"It doesn't matter now," he said as he slipped Jean's arm over his shoulder for support, "Let's get her in the car and we'll get out of here."

Murdock ran on ahead and got the door to the backseat open, Hannibal and Face slid Jean in on one side, Murdock got in on the other and the colonel and lieutenant got in the front and Hannibal got them out of there like a bat out of hell. A few minutes later Face knew they were in trouble when he saw another car with red lights going by on the opposite side of the road, and as soon as they passed it, it did a U turn and came up behind them.

"Better step on it, Hannibal, they're back again," he said.

"I know," Hannibal replied as he buried the accelerator to the floor.

Jean had half of her face buried in one hand and through her other eye she looked over at Murdock and asked him, "Are we dead yet?"

"Not yet, hang on," Murdock said as he reached over and pulled her towards him. He leaned forward and saw the speedometer climb up to 95, then looked behind him and saw the other car was still keeping up, and he crossed his fingers.

As Hannibal got them off the main road and away from the MPs, they all got knocked around in the car and thrown against the windows; finally though they managed to get away when the car behind them unexpectedly ran into a tree, and now Hannibal was looking for a way to get them out of sight and off the radar. He picked up the radio and got a hold of B.A. again and told him, "B.A., there's been a change of plans, something happened and Jean's hurt, we just lost another batch of MPs so we're going to look for a place to lay low for a while. When the coast is clear I'll let you know, but in the meantime it'd be a good idea if you stay out of sight as well."

"Alright Hannibal, but where're you gonna be at, man?"

"I'll let you know when I find a place," Hannibal told him.

"Well I definitely think we're going in the right direction," Face said as he gazed out the window, "Look how tall the grass and weeds are out here, nobody could possibly live out here."

Hannibal had to agree with that, and right offhand he saw no tracks in the dirt and gravel road they were on so nobody had driven through here recently either. He looked up ahead and saw something and nodded to Face, "Hey, you see that?"

"It looks like an airplane hangar," Face squinted to see the building.

"We flying somewhere, Colonel?" Murdock asked curiously.

"No, but who would ever think to look for us in there?" he pointed out.

"That's a good point," Murdock turned to Jean, who was about asleep and had her head leaning on her shoulder, "You hear that, Jean?"

She grumbled something but otherwise didn't respond.

"Murdock you better make sure she stays awake," Face suggested, "She might have a concussion."

Hannibal pulled the car up to the hangar and he and Face got out to open the doors, Murdock and Jean stayed in the back and when Jean knew they were alone she forced her eyes open and said weakly, "Murdock, I did something horrible."

"Oh I know," he said sympathetically, "But don't worry, Face never needs to know that you were the one who let those fire ants get in his bed sheets."

"No Murdock, not that," she said, "I went back there to kill Decker, but that's when I got knocked out."

"What?"

She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain, then she told him, "It's not Brutus, Murdock, it's me, there's something wrong with _me_."

Murdock grabbed her when she started trying to thrash around and as he did, his hand brushed against her forehead and he realized she was right, something _was _wrong with her, she was burning up!

Hannibal and Face came back at that moment and got the car started again and drove it into the hangar, but once they got inside they realized that somebody must've used the building for ulterior purposes because it didn't look like an airplane hangar inside, it looked like a cross between a warehouse and a labyrinth. There were walls and shelves too tall to see over protruding all throughout the building so they had to follow doorways and corridors to get anywhere but all the same they couldn't see what was up ahead at any of them.

"What is this place?" Face asked.

"I don't know but we better check it out," Hannibal said, "There might be something here that we can use."

"Colonel," Murdock spoke up, "I think we've got a problem."

"No there's no problem," Jean slurred as she tried to walk away from him, "Nothing happened, Decker's still alive, he has _no_ idea how close his head came to being an exploding watermelon."

Hannibal pointed to Jean and asked Murdock, "What's wrong with her?"

"She must be delirious, Hannibal, she just keeps saying things that don't make any sense."

"Huh," Face noted, "Now you know how B.A. feels when he talks to you."

Hannibal grabbed Jean by the shoulders and pulled her towards him so he could get a look at her. He had her tilt her head down so he could see the back and he was able to make out a large bruise forming under her hair. "Whoever knocked her out got her good, it probably _is_ a concussion."

"Get your hands off me," Jean pushed away from him, "I'm fine…I'm fine, now let's see what kind of place this is and see if we have to stay here or not."

Hannibal told Murdock, "When we _do_ get out of here, we'll get her to a doctor and see what he can find."

"Yeah, she's also got a fever, Hannibal," Murdock told him, "I don't know if they're connected but…"

Murdock was cut off when they heard gunfire ringing out and echoing throughout the hangar. Nobody could see where the shots were coming from but they knew they had to get out of sight and fast. They crouched down and ducked behind the cattycorner walls and drew their own weapons, but they had no idea where to aim or even who to aim for.

"You get the feeling we interrupted something?" Face asked Hannibal.

"Could be," he replied, "Come on, let's see what we can do."

They slowly made their way through one corridor, hearing the shots ringing out all over the place and never knowing where they were coming from _or_ where they were going, _or_ if one of them would suddenly get hit. Face was the first one to reach the end of the tunnel and found it led to a door, which he prayed led to the outside; it wasn't locked but it was stuck, so he kicked it open and they ran out. It was only once they got out back into the sunlight that they realized they were short one member, their honorary corporal.

"Jean's still inside!" Murdock said and turned to run in, but he was stopped by Hannibal.

"I'll get her, Murdock," Hannibal told him, and he dashed back into the building.

It took him a few twists and turns while playing moving target to find Jean but he finally did, and it surprised him. She was sitting in the middle of the floor with a blank look on her face like she didn't have any idea what was going on. Hannibal knew most people in this situation would be very tempted to scream at her to get up and run, but he had a good idea he knew what was keeping her down. As he kept low to the ground and stayed quiet and made his way over to her, he realized that this was the first time, that he knew about anyway, that they'd actually had somebody shooting at them. That noise was pretty generic by now but every so often it still sounded fresh to him, as fresh as the bullet hole that tore into him for the first time had been when he was much younger.

"Hey kid," he said quietly, moving slowly so he didn't panic her, "You ready to get out of here?"

She said nothing and stayed on the floor, Hannibal grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up; her legs were like rubber but her feet were like cement, and the blank look in her eyes was gone now, replaced with something Hannibal could identify very well: hatred, anger, resentment, all at herself because she _couldn't_ get up and run.

"Take it easy kid, just stick with me," he said as he helped her up and escorted her to the exit, "Tell me something, kid, are you familiar with the term post-traumatic stress?" He knew what he was talking about, it was something that all of them had lived through; after the first time of getting shot, when you heard the firing again you became paralyzed because you remembered what it was like being hit the first time, and how close you had come to death, and the idea of it happening again was enough to freeze your blood in your veins and scare you stiff. And Jean had already been hit twice in the chest, she didn't need a refresher course in how to be Swiss cheese.

It wasn't easy but Hannibal finally got her out the door and with the others, and by that time they had another car ready to go, everybody got in and they drove the hell out of there with the noise of gunfire still ringing in their ears.

"What the hell do you think _that_ was about?" Face asked Hannibal.

"I don't know," Hannibal told him, "But I have a feeling we'll be coming back to find out soon."

He glanced up in the rear view mirror and saw Murdock and Jean in the backseat, Jean was starting to look worse than before. In addition just being pale, now she was starting to look a bit green as well and her face was covered in perspiration and he could practically see it running down her hair as well.

"How're you holding up, Corporal?" he asked.

Jean didn't answer him, she didn't even move in any way that acknowledged she'd heard him; the fact that her rank couldn't even get a response out of her told them just how bad of a condition she was in. It had been the only thing keeping her awake when she was bleeding to death on the helicopter floor last year. All three men knew they were in trouble and it would get worse if they didn't get her to a doctor soon; Hannibal hit the accelerator till it was going 85 and he got them back onto a paved road leading to civilization, but after a couple of miles he realized they were actually going back into the woods when he saw a string of cars with red lights coming their way.

"These people don't give up!" Face said exasperatedly.

"Don't I know it," Hannibal replied as he jerked the wheel to the left, "Hang on!"

On the road again and off the road again they went, Hannibal didn't have any idea where he was driving them but as long as it was away from Decker and his flunkies, it would work for them for the time being. The ride was sharp and bumpy and Face was starting to get seasick himself and they weren't even anywhere near the ocean, but finally after a while he saw they were coming to a place that looked like it might be good for hiding out at until further notice. Civilization once again seemed to have been left at the wayside and they'd found themselves in the middle of a small ghost town that didn't look like anybody had been out there for a few years. There were no cars, no people, no signs of life anywhere; just a bunch of trees and rocks and abandoned buildings that all looked ready for the wrecker's ball.

"The main thing is we want to get out of sight," Hannibal said as he stopped the car, "And finding a place we can hole up in with supplies wouldn't hurt either."

"Got any ideas?" Face asked as he looked around at the run down businesses that were now boarded up and condemned.

"Yeah," Hannibal said, and he pointed to a rundown, one story tall store that spread out on the ground level like a string of motel rooms, "Let's try that one."

Face threw the door open on his side and saw Murdock helping Jean slide out of the backseat, "You need any help, Murdock?"

"No thanks, Faceman, I got it," Murdock said as he kept a hold on Jean with one hand and kicked the door shut with his foot, "Come on, Saint, we're going for a little walk."

Hannibal found the front doors to the building were locked so he also found a brick and quickly fixed that; the glass flew everywhere but he undid the lock from the inside and pushed the doors open and they all walked in.

"What is this place?" Face asked as he looked around at the dusty interior.

"I don't know," Hannibal replied, "The sign outside was too faded to read." He suddenly felt the air being choked out of him and he loosened the top of his shirt, "Stuffy old place though…"

"Hannibal…" Murdock pointed at Jean and without saying as much, inquired what he should do with her.

"See if you can find a place to make her comfortable, Murdock," he said.

"Comfortable? In this place, Colonel?" Murdock inquired, still he took Jean by the hand and led her over to the back of the shop where there was plenty of floor space to lie down on, at least the tiling was cool.

"What do you say, Hannibal?" Face asked him, "Are we seriously going to stay here?"

"Do we have much choice?" Hannibal asked, "There's no radio in that car so we can't get a hold of B.A. and he doesn't know where we are. Decker's got a hundred men out watching for us so we have to stay out of sight before we can get Jean to a doctor."

"Yeah but…" Face leaned in to him and confided in the colonel, "She doesn't look too good, Hannibal."

"I know it," he said, "But if Decker catches us he won't let us get her to the hospital, he'd probably let her die just to spite us."

After the treatment she of all people had given Decker the last few days, Face could easily see that happening. They turned and looked to the back and saw Murdock was seated on the floor and had Jean leaning back against him, using his chest as a pillow for the time being. She looked too far out of it to notice anything, he looked like everything was alright but it was obvious to his comrades that the captain was doing his damnedest to look self assured for the sake of his wife.

"Any ideas, Hannibal?" Face asked.

"If she gets worse we'll risk the trip back into town," Hannibal said, "For the time being we'll monitor her and see if she can't kick the fever without a doctor's help."

"So you mean for the time being we just wait?" Face asked unbelievingly.

"We wait," Hannibal nodded.

* * *

Hannibal and Face had been all over the abandoned store and still couldn't figure out what its purpose in its previous life must've been. Just about everything was gone except for the counters and shelves and a few things here and there; one thing Hannibal _was_ able to find that he was eternally grateful for, were a few gallon cider jugs that had been filled up with water and sealed up tightly so the water was still clean and certainly drinkable. The store wasn't only stuffy but as the day went on it became unbelievably hot and was like being locked in a metal box in the middle of July; busting open the glass in the front doors hadn't helped the situation too much and they didn't dare break any of the other windows incase, by the sheerest of chances, somebody would be out there to hear the noise and come investigating.

Murdock remained on the floor with Jean in his arms and leaning back against him, maybe by now she was asleep but she had been so delirious from the fever it was hard to tell. Hannibal crouched down beside the captain and whispered so he wouldn't disturb Jean, "How's she doing?"

"Not good, Colonel," Murdock answered, he looked at Hannibal and told him, "It's my fault you know."

"What?" Hannibal almost laughed, "What do you mean, Murdock?"

Murdock looked like he'd been punched in the gut as he explained, "She caught my fever, Hannibal, it's my fault, I shouldn't have let her stay with me when I was sick."

"Murdock, that's not your fault," Hannibal told him, "It's something that just happened, besides, with all the millions of germs flying through the air, you can't even be sure that Jean caught it from _you_."

Murdock didn't look convinced though, "You think she'll be alright, Hannibal?"

"Well I think…" Hannibal looked at Jean and a light bulb went off in his head. He grabbed the front of Jean's MP jacket that she still wore and ripped the buttons off of it and practically tore it off of her so all that remained was a thin white tank top underneath.

"What're you doing, Colonel?" Murdock asked concernedly.

"Her fever…she's burning up and she never bothered changing out of this hot army suit. Murdock, you've got your stuff moved in with her, meaning you two share a closet now, right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"What do her clothes look like?"

Murdock couldn't figure out what the hell Hannibal was getting at but then it hit him, "Light material, no sleeves on most of them, I don't think she's got a single long shirt, and only two jackets, and one of them's the one we gave her."

"She's what is referred to as an _extremely_ hot blooded person, their bodies can overheat much faster and in much cooler temperatures than most people's can," Hannibal said as he leaned down to take off the boots she was wearing, "We've got to get her out of these clothes, it's already hot enough in here, we don't need her suffering heat stroke on top of the fever."

Murdock helped hold Jean still while Hannibal got her boots and socks off, but when Hannibal reached for the zipper on the pants she wore, the pilot stopped him and insisted, "I'll do that, Colonel…if she remembers this when she wakes up, she can hate _me_ for it."

Hannibal nodded in understanding and said, "I'll find something we can cover her with."

Face had been watching from the doorway leading into the back room and he was two steps ahead of Hannibal on that one. He found a couple of old sheets that he guessed had been used for drop cloths, he shook them out to remove the dust and dirt and spiders and gave them to Hannibal when he came in. "This is all I could find, Hannibal."

Hannibal felt how thin the fabric was and nodded, "These will be perfect."

He took the sheets out to the front room and handed them to Murdock, who draped one over Jean's lower body so he could finish undressing her without anybody seeing anything. He knew that it was strictly professional among the three of them but he also knew that Jean wouldn't see it that way when she recovered; he still remembered how furious she had been a year ago when Hannibal had to examine the bruises under her clothes that the MPs had given her. She wouldn't let anybody look at her while she was awake and even once they'd drugged her to do it, she was still ready to rip somebody's head off when she woke up and remembered the examination.

With the sheet laid over Jean, Murdock started to slip his hands under it and found the waistband of her pants, but decided it would be safer to do this with a little coverage. He ripped two pieces off the second sheet and gripped them in his hands like they were supposed to be a couple of potholders or something. It took a little more effort that way but he managed to get the button clasp open, the zipper down, and then came the harder part of actually getting her out of them, every inch lower he managed to slide the army green pants he expected Jean to wake up and punch him in the face, but she never did and he took that as being a worse sign. Finally though he managed to get them off of her and he discarded them beside the second sheet and wrapped the first one around Jean, and he had to laugh because this was very similar to how they'd found her shortly after they had met up with her again and found out she was now living in Los Angeles.

"I don't know what's the matter with me," Hannibal said as he came back to them.

"What is it?" Murdock asked.

Hannibal pulled a pill bottle out of his pocket and told Murdock, "I completely forgot I had these…" Murdock recognized them as the pills he'd taken to break his own fever. "We'll give her a couple of these and see if that helps any."

"Okay," Murdock said reluctantly as he took the bottle, "I don't think she can take them dry though."

"I found water over towards the back," Hannibal told him, and went to get a jug of it.

Face had been keeping a watch out through the windows to make sure nobody came along, as if anybody would, and even though it seemed like a safe bet that nobody would ever find them out here, he still couldn't shake the feeling that Decker would be along at the worst time possible and catch them.

"Realistically speaking, Hannibal," he murmured to him, "How long can we stay out here?"

"I understand what you're saying, Face," Hannibal told him, "But it's either that or we run the risk of traveling with a sick woman in the car and that's not going to help us much either."

Either they hadn't been as quiet as they thought or Murdock could tell what was on their minds anyway; when Hannibal came back with the water and Face carried a still sealed pack of paper cups, Murdock looked up at the lieutenant and the colonel and told them, "I'll stay here with Jean, you guys go on ahead and find B.A., if Decker comes here and finds us, he can't really do anything to me since I have an alibi for being out of the V.A., and maybe he'd agree to have Jean taken to a hospital."

That was Murdock for you, Hannibal thought; at any given time any one of them would willingly sacrifice themselves so the other three could escape unscathed, but Murdock was relentless in it, he never took an extra second to reconsider his decision. He was always the first one to volunteer his own life to lay down on the line, and now was no exception either. Hannibal knew now that Jean had been right; Murdock _wouldn't_ let his married life interfere with the Team, he always had to be right in the middle of the action with the other three in order to feel in his place, but this was his place too unfortunately, the Team martyr. He would stay behind and run the risk of Decker finding him and taking him in, so they could get away and go ahead with Hannibal's plan. Commendable, Hannibal thought, but it wasn't going to happen today.

"Nothing doing, Captain," Hannibal told him as he knelt down beside him on the floor, "Either we all stay or we all go, nobody's getting left here."

"Then which is it?" Murdock asked.

Hannibal looked at him, and up at the Lieutenant, and he told Murdock, "We're staying here for the time being. If Jean gets any worse, or better, we'll chance moving her, right now it's a hard, bumpy ride and I don't want to put her through it in her current condition if we don't have to. We'll all rest here for a while, then when there's any update we'll move out and figure out what our next move is."

Jean was mumbling something that nobody could understand because she said it through closed lips. Hannibal reached over and cupped his hand around her jaw and asked her, "_What _is it, Jean?"

Jean never opened her eyes but she managed to dredge up, "Files…lost the files…in the other car."

Hannibal realized she was right, until Face explained that when he went back in to get Jean at the hangar, Murdock had taken the files out of the army car and put them in the one they got away in, and they were still in the car now. In the long run it might've been easier to just take the car they'd come in, but it would be very easy to spot and every military policeman in the state of California would be looking for it, so they ditched it and took the other one they'd found at the hangar instead.

"I'll go get them," he said.

"Good idea," Hannibal replied, "Maybe now we'll be able to figure out who could possibly hate Decker enough to want to kill him."

Jean choked on a laugh and said weakly, "Besides me, Hannibal?"

He decided to humor her and answered, "Somebody who hates him _far_ worse than you do, kid, this one's actually got the nerve to try and kill him."

Jean laughed again, painfully, they had no idea; she had no idea why it was but the truth of the matter was they had no idea because none of them believed she would actually be capable of killing Decker. They'd all taken her confession or facsimile thereof as just being a direct result of the delirium she suffered due to her fever; though they did all still wonder what had happened that she got knocked out, but they decided that was a mystery that could wait until another time.

* * *

As night came, Hannibal made the rounds through the store to make sure nobody was outside trying to break in or ambush them, and as he made his way back to the front room of the store he had to laugh. Face was a creature of comfort and because of this was always demanding the best, he never settled for second anything; always the finest wines, the most expensive penthouse suites, silk pajamas, king sized beds, etc., so it was an amusing sight to see his Lieutenant had fallen asleep sitting up on the floor looking through the MP reports and still had several of them bunched up in his hand.

Face had heard Hannibal laughing but he didn't actually wake up until he felt somebody pulling the papers out of his grip.

"Finding anything?" Hannibal asked as he took the files from him.

Face rubbed his eyes and said, "I don't know what you're hoping to find in there, Hannibal, it looks like all of these jokers have been working in the military _and_ this branch specifically, for several years. No new guys, nobody that looks out of place, I'm not seeing any red flags here."

"Well," Hannibal said as he looked over the documents, "I don't buy that whoever's doing this has been letting his hatred for Decker build up and slowly fester for several years until it reached its boiling point now."

"I can believe it," Face replied, "I just don't know anybody likely for the job."

"Well there's got to be somebody, the question is who, and why?" Hannibal asked.

"The why doesn't really matter, does it?" Face asked, "It _is_ Decker after all, so I'm not too curious _why_ someone would want to kill him, only who, and what his connection to him is."

"Well we better find out who it is, and _soon_," Hannibal reminded him, "Because if something happens and Decker _does_ get killed, you _know_ who they're going to be pointing the finger at on that one."

Face grabbed his throat at that thought. "You think Crane could be connected to it somehow?"

"Well," Hannibal took out a cigar and bit down on it, "Anything _is_ possible but it just doesn't strike me as being too likely. He's Decker's right hand man, I think we're looking for somebody in the back, a nameless, faceless, expandable, replaceable MP, what better place to hide?"

"Alright, I got a question," Face told him, "Who do you think that was shooting at us when we were at the hangar?"

Hannibal pondered that question for a moment and said, "It could be they're one in the same. That path we took to get off the main road when the MPs were following us, it's nothing you could deliberately plan to get from point A to point B, but it _is_ close by with easy access."

"So Decker's would-be assassin was trying to kill us too?" Face asked, and added dryly, "This just gets better and better."

Face looked over his shoulder and saw Murdock and Jean both lying on the floor asleep, Murdock still with his arm wrapped around Jean and her head pressed back against his chest as a pillow.

"How's she doing?" Face asked.

"Well unless I'm losing my touch," Hannibal said, "The fever _is_ going down, I think come morning we'll all be able to get out of here."

"Good," Face replied, "This place is too filthy for my liking." He turned around and got a better look at Murdock and Jean and he added, "I guess I haven't taken this whole thing too well, eh?"

"I think we all could've handled it better than we did," Hannibal told him, "But I don't think they'll hold it against us."

"Well, we know Murdock won't, but that one," Face pointed at Jean, "I wouldn't count on it."

Hannibal chuckled and said, "What's the matter, Face? Don't you believe in miracles?"

"Miracles?" Face repeated, "All the saints together and all the saints' men couldn't put that one together, Hannibal."

Hannibal just laughed in response.

* * *

Jean felt sweat pouring down her neck and back, she opened her eyes and saw Murdock hovering over her with a big smirk on his face.

"Good morning, hon," he said and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead, "Feeling better today?"

"Murdock?" Jean tiredly asked as she tried to sit up. She saw Hannibal and Face over in a corner and they were looking at her too. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"About six in the morning," Hannibal answered, "You slept clear through the night, your fever finally broke about an hour ago."

Jean started to sit up and found it awkward to do so, she looked down and saw she was wrapped up in a dirty white sheet, and she found where it folded up and started to unwrap it when she realized something and she looked up at the men and said, "Alright, very funny, who stole my pants?"

"Oh, I'll get them for you," Hannibal volunteered.

"And the outside temperature dropped quite a bit overnight so you'll probably want your jacket too," Face added.

Jean looked down again at her present appearance and she remarked dryly, "You people disturb me."

They tossed her her clothes and Hannibal and Face stepped into the backroom while she changed; Murdock had been left in the front room with her but he turned around and closed his eyes and covered his ears while she got dressed.

"Did anything happen here last night?" Jean asked.

"Huh?" Murdock asked.

She reached over and slapped his hand and asked him again, this time he answered, "No, nothing happened, nobody came, it was a very boring night. Hey listen, Jean, I'm sorry you got sick, I know you got it from me."

"That doesn't matter, Murdock," she told him, "Murdock, I _wasn't_ delirious yesterday, I knew what I was talking about and I _did_ try to kill Decker. That's why I told you I would catch up, I went back there and got in one of the buildings through a back entrance, and I went to the window and I had a perfect aim at his head. I could've killed him, and I would've, but somebody came into the room and knocked me out, and when I woke up, Decker was gone, the MPs were gone, whoever was in the room with me was gone, even the rifle I'd taken up to use, there was no evidence to prove any of it had ever been there. I don't get it, and I also don't get why whoever was in the room didn't just kill me when he had the chance."

Murdock didn't say anything at first but Jean about hit the ceiling when she heard him laughing. He figured by now she was dressed and he turned around to look at her, and she was, and he said, "So that explains it."

"Explains what?" she asked.

"A few days ago when you started talking like maybe our getting married _was_ a mistake, that was why, wasn't it?"

She nodded, "I wouldn't let you guys take the rap for his death, and I knew if I did kill him, you wouldn't want anything to do with me anyway." She shook her head, "I can't explain it, Murdock, I knew killing him wouldn't really solve anything, but it was just like I _had_ to do it…I'm starting to think that Brutus never existed, maybe all the time it _was_ just me, maybe I'm just a cold blooded murderer after all. And if I am, none of you would want to see me again, and probably just as well."

Murdock didn't say anything to her for a minute, and finally he told her, "You might be right…but I don't think so."

"What other explanation is there then?" Jean asked, "Every time I think I'm fine and I can get let it go, _something_ always happens that I feel myself slipping back into that old mode, I want to kill somebody and I want them to suffer."

"That concussion was your saving grace," Murdock said.

"I suppose so, but there won't be one the next time and it's a safe bet there _will_ be a next time."

Murdock had a theory about the whole thing, the problem was that his answer wouldn't be one Jean wanted to hear and he knew it. He would've recommended that they get her in to see one of his therapists at the V.A. since this was a combat related trauma that was responsible for this mess, but he knew she would _never_ talk to one of them, under _any_ conditions. And he knew that she would have a point; she couldn't really talk to anybody about what was going on without revealing how the whole thing got started in the first place, and nobody would take too kindly to the revelation that she killed 20 members of the US Army, no matter what the reason was. So, he switched to plan B and decided to see how well it went over with her.

"The only thing about it, Jean, is that you're still young, so you need to work on your impulse control. This is something that a lot of soldiers have to deal with, I told you about that before, unfortunately this is going to come up more than once in your life, you're going to have to learn how to control the temptations instead of giving into them."

"I know," she said, "But what if I can't? That's what scares me, that maybe the next time I'll just snap and when I realize what I've done, it'll be too late."

"I know the feeling," he told her, "We all do, so far we've all managed pretty well."

He could tell by the look in Jean's eyes that another thought had occurred to her, and she told him, "Every time this comes up I can't help thinking about the other thing."

"What _other_ thing?" Murdock asked.

"I just keep thinking about what I said before, about what if that General Morrison isn't really dead? What if he's still out there somewhere and he planned all of this?"

"Oh I think it's a safe bet he's dead," Murdock told her.

"But how do you know?" Jean asked, "How can you be sure?"

There was a slight pause, and Murdock finally said, "I'm not sure, but I believe that he is, unless he actually pops up one day that'll be good enough for me."

"But then who killed him?"

"That is a question we'll never know the answer to," he told her, "Now come on, let's go get the others and get out of here."

* * *

Once they got out of the store and got back into Los Angeles, the first place they stopped was Jean's home so they could drop her off and let her rest while they went to find B.A. so Hannibal could catch him up on what was going on since they hadn't had any contact with him since yesterday afternoon. They got her dropped off but all the same decided to inspect the house to make sure nobody was waiting for them before they left. By the time they finished looking behind all the doors and under all the beds, Jean had showered and changed and was making up a makeshift bed on the couch so she could rest. She told Hannibal, "The studio wanted me to come in today but I told them I was sick, so they're sending one of their Hollywood doctors out here to take a look at me, because apparently you need a signed note from the doctor saying you're too sick to work today."

"Sounds like school," Murdock noted.

"Anyway," she looked up at Hannibal, "He'll be here sometime this morning so lock the door on your way out, and I'll let him in when he gets here."

"You got it, kid," he told her, then to Face and Murdock he said, "Come on, men, let's go find B.A."

Murdock scoffed, "_Find B.A._, Hannibal you make it sound like we're looking for Bigfoot instead of an angry mudsucker…hey, there might be something to that idea!"

"Just don't try taking any pictures of his footprints, Murdock," Face told him.

They went back to the car and drove to where Hannibal had suggested B.A. wait for them which was a motel off the main highway where nobody in his right mind would go, which Murdock commented explained the four of them perfectly. By the time they got out there, B.A. looked like he was ready to take somebody's head off for all the time he was there, not knowing what was going on. Hannibal explained what had happened yesterday once they split up, and also told B.A. about the hangar and his suspicions that it was being used by the MP or imposter MP who was targeting Decker.

"I say we go back out there and have a look around," Hannibal said, "It's been a whole day, whoever was there might not be there now, and even if he is, we'll be ready for him."

They took the van back out to the hangar and found it looked exactly the same as it had yesterday; they scouted out the area and didn't find any sign that anybody was there, then they opened up the doors and went in. They searched through the whole place and found it was being used as a storage area for a lot of things; guns, ammunition, plastic explosives, some makeshift bombs, also tracking devices and monitoring equipment for following the bugs. There was nothing definite about who was using the place, and it all seemed a bit much to waste on Decker alone.

"When you said assassin, you weren't kidding," Murdock said to Face, "Looks like this guy must do this for a living."

"Makes me wonder how he picks his targets," Face replied, "And _who_ they are."

"I don't know, but I say whoever this guy is, whenever he comes back here we have a little surprise waiting for him," Hannibal said.

"Hey Hannibal, look at this!" Murdock exclaimed suddenly.

Hannibal ran over to Murdock to see what it was he'd found, and Murdock was holding one very familiar rifle.

"This is just like the kind we used yesterday," Murdock said, "They would've been left in the second car that Jean took, she said that whoever knocked her out took the gun she was going to use on Decker, this must be it."

"I wouldn't jump to any conclusions, Murdock," Face told him, "We don't know that for a fact and we don't have any way to prove that it is."

"Maybe not," Hannibal responded as he took the rifle from Murdock, "But I'm seeing several of each weapon around here, but I'm _not_ see any extras of this…he could be right."

"Alright then," Face said, "Let's say it is, let's say whoever _this_ guy is, he went to that apartment, he found Jean, he conked her out, took her gun and left, why? For what purpose?"

"When we find that out, we'll know who our mystery man is," Hannibal explained.

"That's not an answer to the question!" Face told him.

Hannibal smirked and asked, "Face, did I promise you an answer to the question?"

"Well…no," Face realized.

* * *

"Fate never ceases to amaze me, guys," Murdock told the others on the drive back to Jean's house, "I mean we go in looking to find the guy that's trying to remove Decker from the army permanently, and we find an actual hitman instead, who's got a list of clients a mile long and a list of targets longer than that and is paid enough money for his services that you could choke a herd of cattle with, but he has absolutely _no_ connection to Decker whatsoever." On that last sentence the wind went out of his sail and he became more somber and also quieter, then he added, "What're the odds?"

"I don't know," Hannibal answered, "But I'm sure the police will be _very_ pleased with that package we dropped off at the precinct."

"By the way, B.A.," Murdock practically crawled into the front seat as he leaned over to speak to the man driving, "I want to take this opportunity to thank you for personally KO'ing the guy when he confessed he was the one that knocked out Jean, I really appreciate that."

B.A. huffed and replied, "Yeah well you wouldn't have been able to scare him much anyway even if you _could_'ve gotten to him in time."

"Well Jean is just _not_ going to believe us when we tell her what happened," Murdock said, "She is _never_ going to believe this."

They pulled up at the curb and went up to the front porch just in time to see the front door fly open, and a man fly out of it with Jean right behind him throwing things at him and screaming, "And _stay_ out!"

"What's going on?" Hannibal asked as he snagged the man by his collar to keep him from falling and breaking his neck.

Jean came out on the porch and pointed at the man and said, "This is the doctor the studio sent over, Hannibal, he got here about five minutes ago."

"What's the problem?" Hannibal asked her.

"He's a dealer, Hannibal," Jean told him, "He comes in and asks what's the matter, I tell him I'm tired and I want to sleep, so what does he do? He opens up his little black bag and automatically takes out a syringe full of something to stick me with so I'll go to sleep. He never even _asked_, Hannibal, he was just going to shoot me up to knock me out!" Jean jumped over the porch steps and grabbed the doctor by the lapels of his coat and told him, "You Hollywood doctors! _You're_ the reason everybody's going in and out of rehab for the rest of their lives! Somebody can't sleep you give them a pill or a shot, somebody needs to stay awake, you give them a pill or a shot, somebody's got a _twitch_ you give them a pill or a shot!"

Jean was ready to strangle the doctor but Murdock pulled her back and told her, "Don't overexert yourself, dear, I'll handle this," and he punched the doctor square in the face.

Face came in behind Murdock and told him, "Hang on, Murdock, leave it to _me_," and he delivered a left hook right in the doc's jaw.

Jean squeezed in between Face and the doctor and kicked him right where it hurt.

"Was that _really_ necessary?" Face asked her.

"Well, Doc," Hannibal said nonchalantly, "I think it's safe to say that your services are no longer requested here, now you just fill out a note that says Miss Rhodes isn't coming into work today and be on your way, and we won't have to hurt you anymore than you already are."

"You are crazy," the doctor told Jean, then addressing the whole lot of them he added, "You _all_ are!"

"Why thank you," Murdock proudly beamed.

"Are you okay, kid?" Hannibal asked Jean once the doctor was gone.

"Yeah, he never had a chance with me," she said, "Once I about made him swallow that syringe, _then_ he started going through the kitchen criticizing the food I keep on hand saying 'it's no wonder you're sick with all this weird junk you eat'. The nerve!"

Hannibal chuckled and told her, "Well, I happen to know another doctor, a woman doctor," he added quickly, "In a little town called Bad Rock who'd be very happy to take a look at the back of your head."

"Thanks but no thanks, Hannibal," she said, "It's already bruised, there's nothing she can do for that, it'll have to heal on its own."

"Oh Jean!" Murdock ran over to her as they went in the house, "You'll never believe what we found out."

"What?"

"It turns out that we all interrupted somebody's plan yesterday," Hannibal told her, "The guy that knocked you out, the guy that was shooting at us at the hangar, is not the one who rigged Decker's car to crash. He was a professional assassin who used the hangar to store his weapons of choice, and it turns out he already had that apartment ready to use to gun down some political figure who was supposed to go by that street as part of his jogging route. But when Decker and the MPs showed up that changed everything, but the hitman didn't know it yet and when he went in and saw you there, he knocked you out, then when he gazed out the window he realized he wouldn't have a chance to kill the man, so he disappeared back to the hangar."

Jean spun around on her heel and looked at Murdock and Face, then turned back to Hannibal and said, "And they say New York has all the weirdoes. One thing I don't get, if this guy is a pro, why didn't he kill me too?"

"Because he gets paid to kill people," Hannibal said, "And any professional in the business is not going to like giving _anything_ away for free."

"So now what?" Jean asked, "You still have to find the guy that's after Decker, right? So where do you look now? I mean he's got to have bad blood with a lot of people, right?"

"Besides us?" Face asked, "I'd say that's a safe bet, he's not exactly the _warmest_ guy to know, he's probably made a lot of enemies over the years."

"It would be easier just to let the guy kill him, Hannibal," Jean said, "At this rate it'll take you guys forever to find out who it is."

"Perhaps," Hannibal agreed, "But we're going to do it anyway."

"How?" Jean asked.

"I'll worry about that," he told her, "_You_ on the other hand."

Jean took the hint, "I'm going, I'm going," and headed for the stairs.

Murdock followed Jean up the stairs to make sure she didn't fall back down on the way and Face followed behind him because he had something to say to her or he knew he'd never get any rest in this house.

"Jean," he said as the three of them made it to the top of the stairs.

"What?" she asked as she turned back to see him.

Face swallowed everything that he was tempted to say and instead managed to get out, albeit a bit stiffly, "Congratulations."

"On what?" she asked.

Face nodded toward Murdock, "On your marriage."

"Oh," she tiredly replied.

Face looked to Murdock and added, "I always told Murdock he'd make somebody a great wife."

"Yeah, sure," Jean tiredly remarked as she headed to her room.

Murdock took it upon himself to speak for her, "She'll be more enthusiastic once she's feeling better, are you serious though, Face?"

He wasn't sure, but he could play it like that. "Sure, Murdock," Face told him, "Who knows? This might be the best thing you ever did."

"Oh I'm so glad you said that," Murdock said, and surprised Face by suddenly choking the air out of him by hugging him tightly, "I told her you'd come around and I'm so glad you did."

"Yeah, so am I," Face gasped, "Let go of me, Murdock."

"Sorry," he said.

"Well," Face told him, "Let's go see what Hannibal's new plan is."


	22. Chapter 22

Jean spent the day sleeping on an icepack while Face, Murdock and B.A. were introduced to Hannibal's new plan, and everybody had the same opinion about it.

"Hannibal, you've finally lost your mind," Face told him.

"Yeah man, this plan sounds worse than _anything_ the crazy fool could've ever come up with," B.A. agreed.

"For once, Colonel, I have to agree with the angry mudsucker," Murdock added, "You actually think if we go to Decker and catch him without the MPs around, he's going to be willing to talk to us?"

"He _might_," Hannibal answered, "He has to know that it's not _us_ setting him up, the fact that he's gone off alone to try and catch us says that he suspects what we know, it's somebody who's behind him every time he comes after us with company behind him."

"But what if he doesn't?" Face asked.

Hannibal shrugged and said, "Then we'll escape, it's four of us against one of him."

"Oh, it's just that easy," Face said sarcastically, "And where would you recommend we try this?"

Hannibal didn't have to give him the answer on that one, the big grin on his face told Face all he needed to know, and he hated Hannibal for it.

"The Federal Building!?" he about hit the ceiling, "You want to try cornering Decker where he works!? Hannibal, you _have_ gone crazy, do you have any idea what we'd be walking into? There'd be a hundred MPs on us in a minute, and that's assuming all goes well!"

"I know, Face," Hannibal grinned at him, "And Decker would _never_ expect it, that's what makes it so brilliant."

Face was just about to the point of ripping his hair out and stammering under his breath about Hannibal would've done well as a kamikaze pilot in World War II, and he knew he had to get out of the room before he did something he'd regret later and tried strangling their colonel. He walked out and left B.A. and Murdock in the living room with Hannibal, B.A. was shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the whole thing and Murdock just stared at Hannibal with his bottom jaw halfway down to his chest.

"Something on your mind, Captain?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock looked stunned and told him, "Dr. Richter discharged me _just_ in time, I had to hang up my crazy title undefeated, and it looks like now we can hand it over to you. Colonel, this is the craziest plan I've heard yet, and you know what that means coming from me."

"Thank you, Murdock," Hannibal replied.

Murdock didn't have the heart to tell Hannibal that he wasn't sure it was supposed to be a compliment.

* * *

Face had made his way out the front door and was kicking the large stones that outlined a flower bed beside the porch as he still fumed on about Hannibal's plan, "Go to the Federal Building and talk to Decker, Hannibal's out of his damn mind, he can't be serious!"

He stopped in mid-rant when he looked up and saw the windows on the second floor. He took a few steps back so he could see in the window leading to Jean's room and he was able to see the blind was pulled halfway up, and he _could_ look in and he saw Murdock standing by the bed, and he couldn't see Jean but he figured she was still in bed, maybe asleep but probably not. Face imagined that right now Murdock was filling Jean in on what Hannibal's plan was, but based on how she had been earlier that day, Murdock probably wasn't having much luck getting a response out of her.

He needed to get out of here, even outside of the house he could feel the walls closing in on him and he had to get out of there and clear his head before _he_ went crazy. And then the idea hit Face; he ran out to the driveway and reached his corvette and jumped into the driver's seat.

Up on the second floor, Murdock had heard the car start up and he went to the window to see what was going on and he saw Face speeding his 'Vette out of the driveway and disappear down the street in a matter of seconds, a new personal best he thought.

"What is it?" Jean asked from where she lay in bed with her eyes closed and a freshly changed icepack behind her head.

"Nothing," he answered, "Just Faceman leaving."

"Sounded like he was in a hurry," she said as she tried turning on her side.

"Probably had a hot date," Murdock suggested, and grabbed Jean and pulled her back, "Don't do that or you won't keep the icepack on it."

Jean grumbled and pulled the sheet up over her head and tried to burrow underneath. Murdock wasn't sure what to do; on one hand he didn't feel like going back downstairs and talking to Hannibal again, because he honestly had no idea what to say to the colonel, he had a bad feeling about this plan but he couldn't tell Hannibal that. But on the other hand, he wasn't sure if he ought to stay up here either; true he couldn't very well leave his wife when she wasn't feeling well, but it was obvious she didn't want any company and there wasn't much he could do to help her either.

He didn't know why it took so long for the idea to hit him but it finally did and he realized what he could do and what he ought to; he had a favor to repay to Jean, and he slipped onto the other side of the bed and lay down beside her and stayed with her while she slept. He thought back to when the whole mess had started when the bombshell dropped that they'd gotten married; he'd been going in and out of consciousness and reality with his fever but he did remember every time he woke up Jean had been with him. Thinking back on it now he felt sorry for her, at that time she had thought he was dying, and since yesterday he'd found himself starting to entertain the same thoughts about her. Jean had been right, whichever side you were on when someone you loved was sick, it sucked, whether you were the patient or the caregiver, they both sucked and nobody should have to go through either one.

* * *

Hannibal stared out the front window at the empty street and said, "He's been gone for two hours now, _where_ could he have gone?"

"Knowing Faceman, anywhere that has women in it," B.A. replied.

Hannibal had been staring out the window for the last 20 minutes and was just about to finally walk away when he heard the roar of one very familiar engine coming from a few blocks away. Sure enough, up came the white and red striped 'Vette and though it raced up to the driveway in a blur, Hannibal could see Face was driving it and it _did_ look like he had picked up a passenger of the female variety on the way.

"This ought to be a good one," Hannibal commented as he headed to the front door. He waited until Face was up on the porch before throwing the door open and practically screaming, "Lieutenant!"

"Hi yourself," Maggie Sullivan said as she walked past Hannibal into the house, with Face following behind her.

The wind went out of Hannibal's sail and his whole body moved like a balloon sagging from lack of hot air, "Maggie? What're you doing here?"

"That's a nice hello from you," Maggie cynically told him and gestured to Face, "Especially after spending an hour with Speed Racer doing 85 in a 35 zone."

Face shrugged and said, "Well it was either that or we'd have to wait for the light."

Hannibal looked at Face, then Maggie, and back to the lieutenant and asked, "What's going on here?"

"Face tells me you have an addition to your family now," Maggie said as she set down her medical bag, "On Murdock's side I believe?"

"Face," Hannibal leered at him questioningly.

"Well you know we couldn't get Jean to agree to go to a doctor, so I brought the doctor to her," Face explained, "I figured since Maggie's a woman, Jean might take more kindly to her and agree to be examined."

"If she's even awake," Hannibal said, and addressing them both he added, "And if she is you better hope she doesn't have anything sharp or heavy in her immediate reach."

"So I've heard," Maggie told him, "Kind of funny though because I would've though you'd be the first one in the team to get married, Hannibal."

"Ha ha," he dryly remarked.

"Well?" Maggie turned to Face.

"Oh yeah, she's upstairs, I'll show you to her room," he said, and went on ahead.

* * *

"Consider yourself warned, Doc," Jean said as she walked back over to the bed, "The men in this house might have a problem with hitting women but I don't, so if anything happens during this exam that I don't like, you're going to know it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Maggie said, and turned back to see Murdock standing behind her, "Hello, Murdock, how've you been?"

"Don't start," Jean told him, and to Maggie she added, "It's a long story and I don't want you in my house any longer than is necessary."

Maggie looked to Murdock and asked him, "Has she been like this since the accident?"

"Oh no, Doc," he answered, "She's always like this."

"I see," Maggie replied, "Alright Jean, why don't you tell me what's been going on and I'll see what needs to be looked over."

"Well let's see," Jean said as she sat down, "I got bashed in the back of the head, and they tell me I also had a fever yesterday, plus I have the 3 Stooges downstairs for in-laws, so you tell me, Doc, how am I supposed to be doing with all that considered?"

Maggie laughed as she opened her bag, "Hannibal's keeping you on your toes, is he?"

"Surprisingly he's been very supportive so far," Jean said, and added, "The fever's gone today but I guess I must have a cold still because nothing tastes right, I've had Coca-Cola, Royal Crown, and now cream soda, and they _all_ taste like ginger ale, and I _hate_ ginger ale."

"Really? Let me see," Murdock said as he picked up the glass on the nightstand.

"Murdock don't drink that!" Jean told him, but it was too late, he had already swallowed a mouthful of the remaining contents.

"Tastes alright to me," he told her, "You _must_ be sick still."

"I just hope I don't get _two _patients," Maggie commented, she took her stethoscope out and handed it to Murdock and asked him, "Can you warm this up for me?"

"Sure," he said, and breathed heavily on the bell before rubbing it with his sleeve.

In the meantime Maggie had Jean turn around so she could examine the back of her head, "When did you get hit?"

"Oh yesterday I think," Jean answered.

"Mm-hmm, and I'm sure a headache immediately followed that, since then have you experienced dizziness or fatigue or confusion?"

"Only all my life, Doc," Jean told her, "And to answer, I was having that _before_ I got hit in the head."

"And since then, have you had any trouble concentrating or remembering things?"

"No more than usual."

"Have you developed a sudden sensitivity to noise or lights?" Maggie asked her.

"Again, no more than usual," Jean answered, "It sounds like I've had a concussion all my life."

* * *

"Concussion and a cold, never a good combination," Maggie told Hannibal as she descended down the staircase.

"Are you sure about that?" Face asked.

"Well it's a slight concussion but it still counts as one," she said.

"Don't you need to take x-rays to be sure about that?" Face asked.

She looked at him, "Everybody advises in favor of it but I think I've done this enough times that I can tell. My guess is she'll be having headaches for about a week or so, but not bad enough that she'd need any prescription pills. In any case she was right, even once we can diagnose a concussion, there's really nothing a doctor can do if it's not severe. All I can recommend is that she rests, takes something for the pain when necessary, and avoids any hard physical or mental work for a few days. _If_ she shows any indication of getting worse, give me a call and I'll be back to see."

"Thanks, Maggie, we really appreciate it," Hannibal told her.

"Well I'm happy to help, but now I've got to be getting back to Bad Rock, that's an hour's drive so…" she nodded towards the door.

"Oh yeah, I'll be right with you," Face said.

"No you won't," Hannibal told him, and took the keys from him.

"Huh?"

"You stay here and help Murdock keep an eye on Jean, I'll escort Maggie back to Bad Rock," Hannibal said.

Face was dumbstruck for a second, then he charged after Hannibal but the colonel was already out the door with Maggie. Face turned around and returned to the living room where B.A. was and asked him, "So did I miss anything while I was gone?"

"Nope," B.A. answered, "Hannibal still thinks his crazy plan 'gonna work."

Face sighed and sat down in a chair beside the couch and said, "I don't get it, B.A., Hannibal's plans are always off the wall but they usually work, but _this_ one…" he shook his head, "It's a suicide mission."

"I know man, but Hannibal's gotta believe it'll work or he wouldn't come up with it," B.A. replied.

"Yeah, the question is _how_ is it going to work?" Face asked.

* * *

Hannibal knocked on the open bedroom door and walked in, "Jean, are you awake?"

"Yes, Hannibal," she dryly remarked from where she lay on the bed, "Because _nothing_ keeps somebody up so much as everybody crowding in wondering if you're asleep." She tried sitting up but half of her body wouldn't cooperate so Murdock had to pull her up. "What is it?"

It had been two days since Maggie had been out to look at Jean and during that time everybody had done everything they could to make sure she stayed in bed and didn't have to do anything, and she was about ready to strangle them all for it; and that feeling in turn was starting to rub off on the men as well.

"Are you feeling up to any traveling yet, Jean?" Hannibal asked her.

Jean seemed to perk up at that suggestion. She turned to him and asked, "Why, we going after Decker now?" she jumped off the bed and practically ran to the door, "Let's go."

Hannibal snagged her back at the last minute by the back of her shirt and told her, "No, nothing like that."

Jean's shoulders drooped and she looked like a dog that just had a bone yanked out of its reach. "What then?'

"Well I've been thinking about what you said about the morning after you two got married," Hannibal said, "And I thought it'd be better late than never."

"What would?" she asked.

"Well even though we were all kept in the dark about the whole thing," he told them both, "I wanted to make up for crashing the honeymoon so for a late wedding present, I booked you two a suite at a hotel for the weekend so you can have two nights and three days away from us and everything else."

Jean shot Murdock a questioning look, and he in turn looked to Hannibal and asked him, "You serious, Colonel?"

"The reservation's already been made in both of your names," he said, "It'll be ready for you this afternoon." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and gave it to Murdock, "It's at a place called L.A. Plaza, should be far enough away that you wouldn't have to worry about any interruptions."

"I'm speechless, Hannibal," Murdock said, "I don't know what to say."

"I do," Jean came up to the two men and asked Hannibal point blankly, "What's the catch?"

Hannibal laughed and told her, "That's what I like about you, kid, nothing gets past you. No, there's no catch, I just figured that after everything that's been going on, you two could use a break from the rest of us."

"You can say that again," Jean said, and took Hannibal by surprise by hugging him, "Thanks, Hannibal."

"Don't mention it, kid," he replied.

"Yeah, thanks, Hannibal," Murdock added as he too joined in the game of squeeze-the-colonel, "This means a lot to us."

Hannibal left the room to let them pack and Face was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs; apparently he had been able to overhear the conversation, and he told Hannibal, "Now I know you've lost your mind."

"Why?" Hannibal asked.

"Sending her and Murdock away on a _honeymoon_? You have to be out of your mind, Hannibal," Face told him.

"No, I have to be smart," Hannibal replied, "The weatherman's saying rain for the weekend so they won't be leaving that hotel room for two days, Maggie said that Jean needs to rest to heal from the concussion and she's _not_ getting any rest around here with us hovering around her all day. So, this'll get them away from the house, and from us, that'll take away any stress she has, and in a room five miles away from everything familiar they won't have anyone barging in to disturb them and we know for sure that Jean will have two days' rest before coming back here. Because you _know_ we can't get rid of her and go ahead with the plan for Decker, she's going to _have_ to come along, but I don't want to risk her getting injured again and winding up in worse condition than before."

"I guess you're right," Face was starting to get the hint to surrender on this one.

The phone in the living room rang and Hannibal went to get it, he came back a minute later with a neutral look on his face and Face asked, "What is it?"

Hannibal pointed back to the living room and answered, "That was the hotel, they called to let you know the most expensive champagne they keep on hand for the guests is $75 a bottle and _yes_ they _can_ reserve two of them for the Murdock/Rhodes booking and send them up with room service."

Face smirked sheepishly and looked at Hannibal like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and also as though shrinking down to the size of a gnat and disappearing would be a tempting idea right about now.

* * *

Once Murdock had their suitcases packed, all that stood between them and Jean's car was a couple rounds of hugging everybody goodbye and thanking them for doing this for them. They got in the car and pulled out, Murdock drove and within a short while they came to the hotel and apparently they got there just in time; just as Hannibal had predicted, the rain started right after they got in the revolving door. They were shown to their suite and Murdock put the 'do not disturb' sign out and locked the door behind them.

"This don't look like no damn honeymoon suite to me," Jean told Murdock as she glanced around the room and went over to the bed, "I like it."

It was fine with him either way. The room was large and the décor was simple, the bed was king sized with plenty of pillows and covers, but he was grateful to find none of that tacky red heart choice of decoration that some places used. He didn't know if that was supposed to help set the scene or lighten the mood but in his opinion, less was definitely more. Jean fell back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, "Three days without Hannibal, without Face's obnoxious whining, without B.A.'s crazy threats, without the studio calling, without anything, now _this_ is what I call a honeymoon. And we got all the comforts of home without the home, a TV, a stocked mini-fridge _and_ bar, we'll never have to leave this room."

"That's _why_ it's the honeymoon suite," Murdock told her as he climbed on the bed beside her.

"Well, despite the name this ain't no Plaza Hotel," Jean said, "I hate to think Hannibal's getting gypped footing the bill for this place, so we might as well make the most of it."

Murdock grinned and replied, "Sounds like a good idea to me," and moved over closer to her, but that thought was interrupted when there was a knock on the door. Murdock growled and rolled off the bed, "I said do not disturb!" he went over to the door and asked, "Who is it?"

"Room service," was the answer.

Murdock turned to Jean and said, "They got psychics working in this place," he turned back to the door and said, "We didn't order anything," but he opened the door anyway to see what it was about.

A man wearing one of the staff uniforms pushed in the hotel's champagne cart and took two bottles out of an ice bucket and set them on the table along with two cut crystal glasses. "Courtesy of the hotel," he said, "Enjoy."

"Well that's hospitable," Murdock noted, and asked, "Who's picking up the tab on this?"

"Already taken care of, sir," the man told him as he wheeled the cart out of the room.

"Sir?" Jean repeated as she sat up against the pillows, then laughed and asked Murdock, "When was the last time somebody called you that?"

"Oh it's been a while," he said, he looked over the bottles and said, "This looks like some nice stuff…hey there's a card on one of them."

"More of Hannibal's personal touch I'm sure," Jean said tiredly as she pressed her head against the pillow.

"Nope, this is Faceman's work," Murdock answered, "Listen, 'Murdock and Jean, congratulations on tying the knot, hope this helps keep the rope in place, signed Face'."

"For real?" Jean asked and held her hand out, "Let me see that." He gave her the card and she read over the scrawled message, "Huh…that was nice of him."

Murdock picked up one of the bottles and asked Jean, "Did Maggie say anything about whether you can drink with your head still hurting?"

"As long as I don't take pills with it, it'll be fine," she told him, "Of course you know that doesn't mean anything either, a year ago I took those morphine pills and whiskey back to back like popcorn and soda. That couldn't kill me either, a little champagne ain't gonna hurt either, pour it on."

Murdock opened the bottle and grabbed both glasses and filled them up. "Well," he said as he handed her one, "Here's to us."

"Here's to doing things right," Jean added as they clinked their glasses together and drank, "Tell me, Murdock, how much of this stuff does it take to get you good and drunk?"

Murdock picked up the bottle and checked out the alcohol per volume percentage and said, "A lot more than that."

"Too bad," Jean replied as she reached over with her free hand to feel through his hair.

Murdock moved back and said, "Doesn't look like it takes much for you anymore."

Jean closed her eyes and smiled weakly, "I'm just tired, I can't get any rest with all of you guys around, you know that don't you?"

"I could guess," he told her, "I know we get in the way."

Jean shook her head, "Ain't that…you guys always in the middle of something, even when you ain't on a mission, things don't ever slow down, they never get quiet, put the four of you together and it's always the same, that's the way it's supposed to be."

Murdock was starting to get the feeling she was about to lapse into another round of she didn't belong anywhere in the picture with the rest of them; he put his glass down and took hers as well and put his arms around her and held her tightly against him, ready to combat anything she had to say, and what it was surprised him.

"I try and keep up with you guys and I can't," she told him, "I don't think anybody can. There's never a dull moment with you guys around, and you want to know what the real kick is? You guys are the only friends I've got, so the only choice I have _is_ to try and keep up, but I've got to tell you it's damn exhausting trying."

Murdock didn't have any idea how to respond to that one, and he quickly found out he didn't have to. He felt a weight pressing against him and he was ready to jump out of his skin, then he realized that it was Jean, she had fallen asleep in his arms and her whole upper body had leaned forward against him. He laid her back against the pillows and made himself comfortable likewise on the other side; he stretched out and felt a few things pop between his neck and one shoulder, then he closed his eyes and decided he'd rest for a while also.

* * *

He had no recollection of falling asleep but he was abruptly awakened when he felt the bed vibrating; and upon awakening he saw it was Jean thrashing around on the bed and she was screaming something in her sleep.

"Not again," he murmured to himself before lunging himself over onto the other side of the bed to hold her down.

Unfortunately he had miscalculated his coordinations and Jean shot up and was fighting with him and they were both rolling around on the bed, her trying to fight him off and him trying to wake her up before she hurt herself. They quickly reached the edge of the bed and Jean started to fall off but Murdock jerked her back so she didn't hit her head in the fall, and instead she threw her weight onto him and he was the one falling onto the floor and taking her down with him. They both hit the floor with a pronounced thud, she landed on top of him and _that_ seemed to wake her up.

"Hoo boy," Murdock said, "Now I know why the husbands are always the first to go." He looked up at Jean and asked her, "Jean, are you alright?" She ought to be, he sacrificed his own back for the back of her head.

"Yeah," she answered slowly, then realizing where they were she asked him, "What happened?"

"Well…" Murdock told her, "Either you were having another nightmare, or the Exorcist has come out with a workout video."

"Oh man," Jean ran her hands over her face and through her hair, "I'm sorry, Murdock."

"That's alright," he said, "But would you mind getting off of me?"

She did, and he pulled himself up slowly and said, "It _was_ another nightmare, wasn't it?"

Jean nodded with her head low and her gaze at the floor.

"Good, it's nice to know it's not just me," Murdock told her, "This makes us even for our wedding night."

She nodded again. "You know something, Murdock?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"The United States military _stinks_," Jean said, "How many suckers do they rope in every year for whatever reason the recruiters sell everybody on? And what happens? _Nobody_ comes back from it the same, everybody's changed, and not for the better. And look at us, we're some of the lucky ones!"

Murdock smiled slightly and clapped a hand on her shoulder and told her, "In a way we are, we each got someone to go through this with who _gets_ it. How many married couples can say that?"

"It _still_ sucks," she told him.

"I know," he replied.

* * *

The rain continued to fall outside for the remainder of the afternoon as well as all night; after dinner Murdock opened the French doors and stepped out onto the balcony and took in the nice cool breeze and the feel of the cold rain splashing down on his skin. Jean stepped out on the balcony with him and said, "The shower's working you know."

"So were the ones at the V.A.," he told her as he took his cap off and tilted his head back and shook his head like a dog, "Ain't nothing like being in tune with nature."

"Oh well then you're doing it wrong," Jean said and grabbed the back of his jacket, "If you want to be in tune with nature you're supposed to take your clothes off."

"I would," he told her, "But unfortunately nature conflicts with the laws of modern man and I'd risk getting shot if I did that, and I've had enough holes to last me the rest of my life."

"You and me both," she said as she leaned on the balcony's railing, "You know, in all the time since I got out of the hospital and went home, and then came out here, I've thought about something and I feel kind of bad, I never apologized to Hannibal for something."

"What's that?" Murdock asked her.

"I ruined his jacket, remember? During the helicopter ride, I bled through all the bandages so he used his jacket to press down with. I didn't remember that at the time, I didn't even think about it until after you guys had left, _then_ I remembered and it was too late to apologize."

Murdock laughed and told her, "I doubt he remembers."

"So how the hell did I?" she asked, "I was _dying_ and _I_ remembered it. Man," she sat down on the balcony floor, "Last year was just a _mess_."

"Yes it was," he agreed as he slid down onto the floor beside her, "But something good came out of it."

"Yeah, what?" Jean asked.

Murdock turned to her and answered, "We met you."

She looked at him in surprise and said, "Nothing personal, Murdock, if I had to do it over again I think I'd opt out of that one."

He smiled at her and replied, "No you wouldn't."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Because," he told her, "Nobody has ever or will ever have the privilege of being able to say they got the drop on Hannibal Smith and knocked him out using his own trick. Not even B.A. has been able to pull that off, that is a once in a lifetime opportunity you achieved when we met, that's worth going through any experience just to have the chance to brag about it."

Jean smiled in remembrance and said, "He sure didn't take too well to that one, did he?"

Murdock reached over and put his arm around her and pulled her to him as he said, "It's amazing how in a short amount of time we were able to build up the history together that we all have."

"It _was_ nice," she agreed, "If you guys hadn't come along when you had I most likely _would've_ been dead long before now."

"Try not to think about it," he told her in a low whisper, then raised his head slightly and kissed her.

"I bet you think about it," she replied, referring to the ever-growing possibility of his own demise.

"As little as possible," he answered.

Jean subconsciously raised her hand to her chest, Murdock knew it was right over her scars, he closed his eyes tightly and tried to forget about _that_ too. The ten minutes it had taken to get her to the hospital was the longest flight he'd ever endured, even longer than the eight hours it took to get to New York and back with her parents, just in time for them to bring her out of surgery. He'd had the fullest confidence in the doctors, he had known once they got her there, everything would come out okay, it had just been a matter of getting her to the hospital alive. Ten minutes had never lasted so long in the history of the world. In Vietnam he'd had to fly plenty of times trying to rush the wounded soldiers to the field hospitals, and a lot of times they hadn't made it, most of them were dead before they even reached the choppers. He kept reminding himself the same thing he'd reminded Jean of, that was a war, that was different, horrible as it was those things were to be expected, not here, not now, not on this side of the world, not in this day and age.

"You ain't getting sick again are you?" Jean asked, and he felt her putting her hand on his forehead.

He opened his eyes and shook his head, "Just thinking."

She didn't ask what about, he suspected she already knew. By now they were both soaked clear through from the rain but neither of them cared and both only half noticed.

"I think you're right," Jean told him, "I think the rain helps bring you back, nature's got a funny way of grounding you in what's important and what the things that really matter are."

"That's why I didn't like the V.A.," he said, "Well, one of the reasons. The whole building was temperature controlled with air conditioning and heating, we could never have the windows open, for obvious reasons, the wind, the heat from the sun, the rain, the sounds of the outside world, none of them could ever get in to us, I think that's part of what _kept_ everybody in there crazy. They had absolutely _no_ connection to the outside world, to reality. Some people spend their whole lives like that, never letting the outside come in, _then_ who're the insane ones?"

Jean looked up at the dark clouds and the falling rain and said, "Some people can't cope with the idea of returning to nature. It's…" her hands were trying to compensate for what her mind and her tongue combined couldn't explain, though Murdock had to applaud her for trying her damnedest to do it, "You ever notice all the little things people do to turn their back on nature? In the warm weather they don't hang their clothes outside to dry, when they drive in the car they keep the AC on and the windows up because they're scared of a little fresh air, they're mortified at the idea of going outside in the rain without total coverage, they're too good to get in the dirt for anything, and then the food, people don't trust food that doesn't look perfect, no bruises, no bad spots, no bug bites, but have you _ever_ seen real food grow like that? Only when it's loaded down with pesticides and God knows what else, and then you eat it _after_ you breathe it during the growing season."

Murdock nodded and commented, "Man has waged a war he is going to lose, he is trying to battle against nature and win, but nature survived millions of years without man before and will prevail again. Even when we're all dust in the ground that makes the plants grow," he chuckled darkly and told her, "That is _our_ contribution to nature."

Jean threw her arms around Murdock and said, "I thought you said don't think about it."

"Sorry," he replied.

* * *

That night the rain continued to beat against the windows and Murdock found it a very comforting sound. The rain here was not the same rain from Vietnam, that was a rain that nobody who was there would ever forget, but this was something different, it always had been. It had an unusual effect, it could lull him to sleep but every time it rained he was always tempted to stay up and listen to it, as if this might be the last time it ever happened. Tonight especially he was determined to stay up while the downpour outside continued. Jean lay on the other side of the bed asleep and turned on her side away from him; all the same he'd been watching her sleep for a while and he was enjoying the view. He knew that this was generally something that parents did with their children, and he didn't know for sure but he suspected Hannibal had had his fair share of doing this with them when the four of them were bunked in the same place for the night, but he considered it a very reassuring experience.

People thought children looked cute when they were asleep because they were quiet and it was the only time in the day when they weren't doing anything and couldn't get in trouble; such was not the case here, Jean did not look cute by any means but she looked at peace, something rarely seen when she was awake. Already in so short a time she had lived hard and lived a hard life and it was evident now; not so much in how she looked but always in how she carried herself, Murdock could see this very plainly. That had been about the first thing they'd all noticed about her; maybe that was what separated her from every other woman they'd ever known, she wasn't friendly, she wasn't particularly pleasant, she expected the worst in everything and from everybody and she had a hard cynical streak in her that could run the course from Los Angeles to Tokyo, not like when the four of them were joking around and trading jabs of sarcasm, oh no, there was a _big_ difference in the two. Ah, but Murdock knew that wasn't all there was to her, it just took a little work to find the rest; the other side of Jean wasn't exactly underneath the surface, it all kind of jammed together and you just had to know where to distinguish between one and the other. He wasn't sure there was a name for what she was, if he had to guess it was somewhere between 'only the good die young' and 'too mean to die', and if there was any truth to either of them, she should outlive the first Japanese child born at the turn of the century.

Jean had said they were her only friends, and Murdock knew this was true, what more he could believe it; her official greeting should be 'my name is Jean Rhodes and I'm not a nice person', it would definitely save time. Maybe that was _why_ they were the only friends she had, that was how they'd met her, and they had been stuck with her and had had to put up with her outrageous behavior towards them. They'd already seen and lived with her at her worst, so they knew that no matter how bad she was now it was one hell of an improvement, something most who had to deal with her would never know about. _That_ was the truth of the matter, the biggest secret of her life could never go past the four of them, and it was because of this, what they knew, what they'd all gone through in the beginning, that they were her friends. And likewise, she knew what their biggest secret was, granted a lot of people knew that, but few of them were actually friends with the Team.

It was because of the situations beyond all their control that they had each other to rely on; and while it was true that didn't make their lives any easier, Murdock wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe it was selfish on his part but he didn't see any point in all of them being free men if it meant they wouldn't be friends anymore. By now he knew that wouldn't happen, but if they had never been arrested for robbing the bank in Hanoi, there was no telling how far they'd be from one another these days or even if they'd even know each other anymore. Personally he considered that a worse fate than being a fugitive. Suddenly the distance between the two of them seemed overwhelming to him and he moved up behind Jean and wrapped his arms around her; she never stirred though after a few minutes she did turn over partially so she was more on her back than her side, and for a change Murdock rested his head on her chest and listened to the steady beat of her heart to lull himself to sleep.

* * *

The room was lighter when he woke up; it was too early for the sun to be up yet and it was still raining so it didn't matter anyway, but Murdock knew it was morning and _this_ time he was happy because he knew they could stay right here and stay in bed this morning. No getting up early, no nurses delivering the wakeup calls and morning pills, no having to go back to the house, no having to see Hannibal or Face or B.A. bright and early; just stay here in bed with his wife who was still asleep, listen to the rain pit-pat outside, and take it easy for a change, and so he did.

It was an hour before Jean woke up, it was still early in the morning so Murdock turned on the TV and found the cartoons, and while he did that, Jean found a change of clothes for the day. She told Murdock she didn't have any problem spending the day in bed, but no power on earth could keep her in her pajamas once she was up and around; after being in the hospital it just felt unnatural, like she was sick and on bedrest permanently, and she couldn't be comfortable for the day unless she was in her jeans and a fresh shirt. Murdock thought it sounded like a good idea and once he got the right station on the TV, he grabbed his clothes and also headed to the bathroom to get dressed, but both he and Jean stopped when they about collided with one another heading in the same direction.

"You go first," he told her.

"I'll be out in a minute," she replied as she headed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Murdock didn't have his watch on but he figured she had that pretty closely timed because practically as soon as the door closed it opened up again and she stepped out wearing blue jeans, sneakers and a gray muscle shirt. Once he got dressed and came out he collapsed on the bed beside her and they watched the morning cartoons. When it got late enough in the morning for a ballgame to come on instead, he looked over at her and grinned at her and said, "This sure is nice."

"Yes it is," she replied, "And I'm grateful to the others for doing this for us, but you know something, Murdock?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"It _would_ be just like them to send us out here for the weekend, out of the way so they could go ahead with Hannibal's new plan for Decker, when we weren't around, wouldn't it? After all now we've established you're not a member of the team, it would look very odd if you suddenly popped up with them, wouldn't it?"

Murdock thought about it for a minute and he and Jean both arrived at the same conclusion, which was to jump off of the bed and start packing.

"I feel kind of bad leaving early like this," Murdock said, "Hannibal paid a lot to get this place for us for the whole weekend."

"Yeah," Jean agreed, "But you know, I think I got an idea that'll make it all worthwhile, and put the bill on someone else."

"What is it?" he asked.

Jean went over to the telephone and asked him, "What's the number of the Federal Building where Decker works?"

"Why?" he asked.

"Because," she answered, "Suppose Decker got an anonymous tip that the A-Team was holed up in this hotel, in this very suite? He'd come in with the whole army parade and they'd bust down doors and tear the place apart, resulting in thousands of dollars' worth of damage and when they found out there wasn't anybody here, the cost of the damages will be on _them _and it'll be all for nothing."

Murdock laughed, "Sounds like the perfect end to a perfect honeymoon to me."


	23. Chapter 23

Hannibal was the first one to come running down the porch steps when he saw the blue car pull up in the driveway two days ahead of schedule.

"What happened?" he asked as they got out of the car, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Jean told him as they walked up to him, "The board of health came in and said we had to get out, the place was crawling with vermin, bugs of all kinds."

Murdock refrained from explaining that it was Decker bugs swarming the place once they got done there. Jean had called Decker and given him the tip, and they hightailed it out of there and sat back to watch from a distance as all the cars and all the men in green showed up and stormed the hotel, and laughed at the sight of it all.

"I almost feel bad for the hotel staff," Murdock told her, "They didn't do anything to deserve that."

"Maybe not but think how much they cheated Hannibal on for that room for the weekend," Jean replied, "I think it'll all even out."

Once they knew the show was over, they got out of the area and headed back for Jean's house.

"Nothing to worry about, Hannibal," he assured the colonel, "We had a great time and we appreciate what you did for us." He surprised Hannibal by grabbing him by the shoulders and kissing him, first on one cheek and then the other.

"I'm with him," Jean told Hannibal, "But if you think _I'm_kissing you, you're going to be sorry."

"I'm just sorry your trip was ruined," Hannibal replied as they headed into the house, "I was hoping to make up for the actual wedding night being cut short."

"That's alright, at least we had one day away from this place," Jean said, "Speaking of which, how did things go while we were gone?"

"Fine," he answered, "B.A.'s out back working on the van and Face is making sure we have everything we'll need when we pay Decker a visit."

"Then you haven't gone yet," Jean said.

"No," he shook his head, "Why?"

"No reason, I just figured you would," she told him, "It would make sense since we've told Decker that Murdock isn't with you guys."

"I thought about that," Hannibal responded, "But I decided it would be better if we all went in on this."

"Any particular reason for that?" Jean asked him.

Hannibal shrugged and said only, "More fun that way?"

Jean glanced over at Murdock and told him, "Works for me. But when?"

"Very soon," Hannibal answered, and he turned on his heel and headed inside.

A minute after Hannibal disappeared in the house, Face came out and met with them on the porch and he told Murdock, "I don't care what Hannibal says, this is _the_ craziest plan he's ever had, I still say it's a suicide mission."

"Then you don't think it's going to work," Jean said.

"Do you?" Face asked her.

She shrugged and said, "I'm not as familiar with Hannibal's plans as you are, aren't they always like this?"

"Not this bad," Face shook his head, "I think we're going to get killed with this one."

"He thinks it'll work," Jean said, "Why would he if it wouldn't?"

"That's the part I can't figure out," Face said, "But I don't think it will."

"Faceman, you just gotta have faith in the Colonel," Murdock assured him, "I know at times he comes off as kind of absurd."

"Yeah," Face agreed.

Murdock added, "Insane."

"Yeah."

"Crazy."

"Yup."

"But that's what makes him the leader, he's all of these things and his plans _still_ work, not always the way he plans them, but they always do," Murdock told Face, "You gotta have faith in the plan."

"But how?" Face wanted to know.

"Simple," Murdock said, "Just approach it like any other of Hannibal's plans."

* * *

Decker would never admit it to anybody but he was starting to come to the conclusion that if he didn't catch Hannibal Smith and the rest of the A-Team soon, however many people that included, they'd have to put _him_ in the mental ward of the V.A. It was bad enough chasing after them every couple of months when they came on the radar again, that was when there was just three of them, and _then_ he found out about Murdock and that woman he was married to, just the thought of that disturbing little fact was enough to make him sick. And _then_ if things weren't bad enough, there seemed to be some credibility to the story that there were more people involved with the A-Team, two additional people shooting at them to aid in Smith and the others' escape. And _now_ his latest problem had involved his response to an anonymous call informing him of a hotel where the A-Team were spotted, and all that had resulted from that was he got egg on his face and stuck with a bill for damages to the hotel amounting to $12,000. He would sooner die than confess this to anyone, but he was starting to seriously wonder just how much more of this he could take.

It took Decker a few seconds to realize the constant drumming in his ears wasn't in his head, but it was somebody knocking on the door.

"Come in," he said, not taking his eyes off the papers on his desk, but the incessant knocking continued, so he repeated, louder this time, "Come in!" But again, apparently the person outside knocking didn't hear him and kept pounding on the door, so Decker got up, marched over to the door and said at the top of his lungs, "I said come in!"

"Acme window cleaners, at your service," a small woman in overalls with a rag on her head said as she came into the room, pushing a large cleaning cart.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Decker asked her, and checked his watch, confirming what he knew, it was after 10 o' clock at night, all the janitorial staff finished their rounds by the early afternoon.

"That's a nice way to talk to a lady," she replied, "You talk to your mother like that?"

There was something to her voice that struck a nerve with Decker, it sounded _too_ familiar. He turned on his heel and saw Jean take the rag out of her hair and stand up straight, and she said, "That's right, Decker, I'm back and I brought some company with me."

The door was kicked open and Hannibal and B.A. stepped in, surprisingly neither appeared to be armed. Decker turned back to Jean and saw her take the top off of the cart and Face and Murdock stepped up and got out.

"About time," Face said in a huff, "Six floors to get here, and had to stop on every floor, I about died in there."

"You?" Murdock asked, "What about poor Billy? Face you were stepping on his foot the whole ride up."

Decker was too dumbstruck by this sudden appearance that he wasn't sure what to be, but the first reaction he had was one of disbelief and anger, and he demanded to know, "How the hell did you all get in this building without being apprehended on sight?"

"I can answer that one," Jean said as she raised her hand and walked over to Decker, "You know Roddy, this is a pretty good operation you got going here, got a lot of yes men standing behind you at every point, dedicated men but not too bright. See it was very easy to get in here without anybody spotting us. All you have to do is walk in the front door and say 'Gee, I wonder which General's car's on fire in the parking lot!', and then watch the fun begin!"

Decker couldn't decide whether he should strangle her first, or punch Hannibal's teeth out for all the trouble they'd caused him over the past few months.

"What are you doing here, Smith?" he asked, "I know you're not smart enough to be turning yourselves in."

"Well you're half right on that one Decker," Hannibal replied, "See I figured since we're both adults, and at least one of us can act like one," he grinned at the look Decker shot him in response to that remark, "That we could put aside our differences for a little while and talk."

"About what?" Decker asked.

"About your car suddenly coming up short on brakes for starters," Jean told him, and when he turned and scowled at her she added, "By the way, you might be interested in knowing that those army cars shake once the acceleration exceeds 80."

"Now you could probably guess, Decker," Hannibal added, "That we didn't have anything to do with that. If I want to put you out of commission I can come up with better and more original ways than just tampering with your brakes. You're an egotistical pain in the neck, Roderick," Hannibal shook his head, "But I don't want to see you dead."

"That," Jean took this opportunity to warn him, "Is just _his_ opinion, you make one false move with me around and I'm going to use your head as a bowling ball."

Decker stared her down and each waited for the first to make the first move so the other would have justification for killing them. However Hannibal intervened by being the voice of reason and he told Decker, "I think you know what we already know, Decker, the only people who have enough access to try and kill you are your own men, the MPs that follow you every time you come chasing us. _That's_ why the last few times you came for us you were traveling alone, isn't it?"

However Decker made it clear he wasn't in any mood to cooperate with whatever they were trying to do. "Who were those other two people in the cars, Smith? Who was it that tried to kill us last week?"

Hannibal guffawed and told him, "If they were trying to kill you, Decker, they would've killed you. That was just a little friendly warning to stay out of our way. But don't get any ideas that the two are connected in any way, if they were, would we be here tonight?"

"Yeah," Face added, "You think we'd risk our lives coming here to see you if we didn't have a reason for it?"

"Of course," Jean said, "It's easier to kill somebody when you're in close contact with them."

Face stomped on her foot and told her through gritted teeth, "You're not helping us any."

"Did I say I would?" she asked him, then turning her attention to Decker she told him, "They got their own reasons for being here, and I got _my_ own reasons to be here. Look, Decker, it's a very simple thing, do you want them to find out who's trying to bump you off, or not? Because if not I can think of plenty of places we'd all rather be than here in this room with you."

Decker laughed, that in itself was a surprising occurrence, and he retorted, "You really think any of you are leaving this building _not_ on the first flight heading to Leavenworth?"

"Not me," Jean raised her hand, "They don't take women. Besides, Roddy, the way I see it is you don't have much choice."

He stared her down again and this time the rest of his body followed so he was hovering over her and she was leaning further back away from him. He grabbed her by the arm with enough force that he nearly broke it; she struggled with him a few seconds and broke loose and stepped back. "You know something, Decker? You got a real problem, just what it is I don't know. Come to think of it just what the hell _is_ your problem? Now you're not seriously going to stand there and tell me that you're still sore at these guys, for what? For being the reason you never got promoted?" Face grabbed her back since he could tell by the look on Decker's face that she had hit a sore spot.

"Use your head, Decker," she said, "It's _all_ politics, it was politics that kept you stuck at the colonel's rank and it's just politics that's got these guys being chased around the rest of their lives."

"There's a million dollars in the Hanoi bank that says otherwise," Decker told her.

"For one thing that money was recovered," Jean said, "For another," she leaned over and poked him and asked, "Why is stealing a million dollars considered worse than killing the people over there? Exactly how does that balance out, so much money per solider you blow up? But I digress, for another thing…Decker, use your brains for _once_ in your life, I know you don't come by it naturally but think about this for a minute, if _these_ guys," she pointed to the A-Team, "Were dumb enough to actually go in and rob the bank, don't you think they'd be smart enough to know how _not_ to get caught?"

"Well they were, with the money in hand," Decker responded, "That was proof enough."

"Oh sure, you never bought that they were ordered to do it as part of a mission, is that it?" she asked, "What if I told you that we got someone with us that can prove otherwise?"

"Who?" Decker asked.

"Funny you should ask," she said, and looked past Decker to the door of his office, "Oh General Morrison! So nice of you to join us here!"

Decker turned but halfway to seeing the door, something hit him in the back of the head and he got knocked out and fell to the floor.

"Did you see that, Hannibal?" Jean asked before any of the men could even think of anything to say in response to the sight of Decker getting his brains beaten out, again, "Did you see that!?" He _turned around_! He _looked_! _He_ has doubts!"

"What are you talking about?" Hannibal asked her.

"He looked, Hannibal! He's no more convinced that General Morrison is dead than I am! In a court of law that is called reasonable doubt! That ought to count for something in your defense."

"You're right, it should, but it doesn't," he told her, "And it looks like Decker's not going to cooperate, so it would be in our best interests to get out of here for the time being. But first…" Hannibal turned to the captain and asked him, "Murdock, did you remember to bring your straitjacket?"

Murdock grinned and nodded in response and took it out of the cart and Face helped him get Decker suited up in it.

"We need something else," Jean said, "Something to shut him up."

Murdock commented, "I'd suggest we use one of B.A.'s socks but we don't want to kill him."

B.A. growled at him in response.

"I know," Hannibal said, and he took the hat off Decker's head, bunched it up and stuffed it into the colonel's mouth.

"Great, but where do we put him?" Face asked.

"I noticed a supply closet down the hall we could stuff him in," Jean told him.

"Terrific, let's go," Murdock said.

He got on one side, Face got on the other and they walked Decker out of his office and down the hall to the closet, through dragged would've been a more suitable term. They tossed him in and locked the door and Hannibal suggested they get out of there before the MPs came back. Apparently they were too late because halfway down to the ground floor, somebody started shooting at them. People were screaming at them to stop, to freeze, to surrender or else, but naturally nobody paid any mind for that. They just kept the exit in sight and headed for it, but their path was blocked by a whole pack of MPs, so everybody grabbed someone and started swinging. Hannibal knocked one cold and kicked another down, Face clocked one and got a second with a good left hook, B.A. grabbed them one at a time and threw them clear over his head and down the stairs, and Murdock grabbed two of them at the same time and bashed their heads together; they had their helmets on so it didn't do much good, so Jean grabbed them one by one and pushed them over the railing so they fell down to the floor below.

It was a long fight to get to the main doors and get out, but they managed, unfortunately they found out too late that the grounds outside were loaded with even more trigger happy MPs. Everybody moved fast and tried to keep low to the ground and rapidly moving from one side to another so they were harder to hit; they had put enough ground between them and the building that they were almost back to the van. Hannibal figured another five seconds and they'd be out of there, and that was when he felt his shoulder explode in a burning agony. He hadn't even heard the shot fired, he only felt the bullet tear through his flesh and suddenly his whole arm felt like it was on fire. He bit back the primal scream that was trying to tear loose from him but it came out a second later when he tripped over a large rock and all the toes on one foot went numb; he felt himself falling and then felt himself hitting the ground. He was aware of somebody calling his name but they were too far away for him to decipher who it was. He felt a second burning sensation, this one was next to the corner of his eye, and that was the last thing he was aware of before everything went black.

* * *

The first thought in Hannibal's head when he woke up in pitch darkness was that he must be dead. But then his head cleared and he realized he was lying on a couch somewhere; there was a draft in the room and from that he could tell that he was dressed only in his shirt and jeans, his jacket was gone. He started to sit up and felt the pain in his shoulder, as well as something wrapped around his arm; by now he ought to know but all the same he reached over and felt the gauze that confirmed what he knew. A little light shone in through the window and from the little he could make out, he knew that they weren't back at Jean's house, instead they were back at his apartment. But where were the others?

That was a question also quickly answered; as Hannibal started to pull himself up into a sitting position, and turned around, and saw B.A. asleep on the floor, and using his thigh as a pillow was Jean, and right beside her was Murdock lying flat on his stomach, and lying draped over Murdock's back was Face, all of them also asleep. Hannibal felt something in his chest but knew it wasn't related to the injuries he'd sustained during the escape. There was no getting around it, he felt every bit like a father to his three men, and now, like Maggie had said, there was an addition to that family. He thought back to the discussions he had had with Jean shortly after her assault in the cemetery, she was right, she already had one father, she didn't need another, and yet here he was all the same, he couldn't step out of that paternal role he felt with any of these people. Or Amy, he realized, he'd never admit it to anyone else but he also felt like a father every time the young reporter was around to help them as well, he'd never let on so she would know, but there were times he suspected she knew anyway.

And what had happened here tonight? He didn't remember anything after getting shot, he could only assume that once they got him back here to his own place, they'd sat up all night waiting to see if _he_ would wake up, and they'd fallen asleep waiting on that. He wanted to laugh, there was a perfectly good, vacant double bed in the other room, and everybody was sleeping on the floor instead; so they would be as close to him as possible, if anything happened, if he'd woken up, if he'd needed anything. It was a nice feeling, he supposed this was similar to how fathers felt when all their children crowded around when the patriarch of the family fell ill, but it sure wasn't anything he wanted to try again anytime soon. Slowly, he got up from the couch and put his feet on the floor and his weight on his feet, it too a little getting used to which told him he'd been on the couch for a long time.

Once the feeling was back in his feet, he went over to the dogpile on the floor and first pried Face off of Murdock, and walked the sleeping lieutenant into the bedroom and got him settled in on one side of the bed. Then he went back and pulled Murdock to his feet and likewise took the captain for a little walk into the bedroom and got him settled in the middle. Murdock had been a little more trouble because he dragged his feet and half of the time he mumbled something; for a minute Hannibal thought he was awake but he realized whatever Murdock was trying to say, it was still in his sleep. On his third trip back, he lifted Jean up and off of B.A.'s leg and eased her into the bedroom and got her in on the other end of the mattress and brought the covers up on the three of them. They were tightly packed into the bed but it would do for now; Hannibal just hoped nobody turned over in the night because if so, either somebody was going to get squashed or somebody was going to get thrown on the floor. Now this just left B.A. to deal with.

Hannibal had risked wrenching his back and suffering a permanent hernia from hauling B.A. over his shoulder onto countless planes and helicopters over the years, by now that was practically a perfected art; but now he had to pry the sergeant up from the floor without waking him up, he had a good idea if he did, B.A. would argue in his very convincing way that it was Hannibal that needed to rest. Luckily, B.A. also remained asleep as Hannibal, with more difficulty this time, pulled the sleeping man up and to his feet long enough to get him over to the couch before the sergeant collapsed on it. Like Murdock, B.A. had grumbled and growled when Hannibal moved him, but he was in too deep of a sleep to even be aware what was going on, let alone to wake up and start speaking coherently. Hannibal grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over the sleeping man who was still sawing logs loud enough to be a chainsaw. Then, all that remained to do now was for Hannibal to go into the bathroom and get a good look at the extent of the damage.

He closed the door and turned on the light and stood before the mirror on the medicine chest. His shoulder had been bandaged and gauzed up and some of the blood was starting to show through but not enough to draw any real concern from him. He also had a bandage on his right temple and a couple on his left wrist, and looking down at his feet, he saw what he had already known about that; all the toes on his left foot were already black and blue from hitting that rock, but they all bent and that was good enough in his book to go down as bruised but not broken. He removed the bandages and concluded that fate or somebody had been on his side that night; his shoulder was little more than grazed, the bullet had definitely taken more skin with it than was necessary, and Hannibal wondered if they were starting to coat the ammunition in pepper spray because he could still feel a burn. Likewise, his temple had just been grazed by another bullet, it looked like it would heal up in a couple of days, he'd give his shoulder a week for full recovery. His wrist had a couple of jagged scratches on it that had been bleeding, he guessed he must've hit another rock when he fell and that's where those came from. Overall there wasn't much damage, he'd certainly been through plenty worse, and until a year ago he'd had the Purple Heart to prove it.

After changing the bandage for his shoulder, Hannibal left the bathroom and made another trip around the apartment to make sure everybody was where he'd left them. Sure enough, there were three lumps in the bed and judging by the pattern of their breathing, all of them sleeping soundly. And in the living room, the particularly large lump on the couch had yet to move even to turn over. Hannibal stepped lightly into the kitchen to consult the clock and found it was 3 o' clock in the morning. Well, everybody else could rest comfortably for a few hours, he decided to just sit up and wait until daylight.

* * *

Murdock was the first one up the next morning. Just as Hannibal was taking the coffee off the stove around 7:30, the pilot walked into the kitchen half looking like the living dead. Hannibal took one look at the captain and decided Murdock needed the coffee worse than he did.

"Morning, Murdock," he said.

"Morning, Colonel," he replied as he staggered over to the table, "How're you feeling, today?"

"I'm fine," he answered, "How long was everybody sitting up waiting for me to die last night?"

Murdock yawned and stretched and creaked and he responded, "I don't know, Hannibal, it was getting late, obviously though it _was_ sometime before the light bulb burnt out in the living room."

"So noted," Hannibal said, "Are the others still asleep?"

"Uh-huh," Murdock answered over another yawn, "Face and the Saint are in bed, and the big mudsucker's still out cold on the couch. What time did you get up, Hannibal?"

"About three," he said, "You're looking out of it today though, are you alright?"

Murdock nodded as he yawned a third time, "I'm fine."

Hannibal didn't appreciate his men lying to him, for any reason, even with Face he would rather the lieutenant whine about having to do something than act like he was happy to do it because he'd know that was a lie. And Murdock was lying to him now, Hannibal could tell there was something weighing heavily on the pilot's mind and he decided to find out what it was.

"You're not still upset about what happened last night, are you?" he asked.

Murdock shook his head, "No, it's not that, Hannibal, it's just…it's nothing."

"Murdock," Hannibal replied, in that tone that they all knew only too well, calm but firm, quietly demanding the truth from his men.

"It's nothing, Hannibal, really," Murdock insisted.

Hannibal wasn't going to give up that easily though, he tried to think, if it wasn't to do with him being shot, "Is it something with Jean?"

Murdock's eyes widened for a second at that, but he resumed his previous expression with just a hint of surprise traceable around his eyes as he said, "Oh Hannibal, I love that girl, you know I do, I'd do anything for her…"

"But," Hannibal said knowingly, knowing that there was one.

Murdock looked at him with eyes wide but tired and full of many things, none of them good. "But I don't know if I want to be married to her, I know that's bad, especially since I already said 'I do' and I did…I mean I do, I don't know…" Murdock about fell face first into the linoleum on the tabletop but his hand caught it at the last minute and held it up. "I just don't know, Hannibal, I mean I knew going into this what it was, that it wasn't a real marriage, I was alright with that…but then I thought about it, real or not it's the first time I've ever been married, I wanted it to work. And we get along great, it's not that, it's just…I don't know what it is, but something about the whole thing just doesn't seem right, you know?"

Hannibal treaded lightly on this matter. He had warned Jean, but he knew that whatever was going on wasn't her fault anymore than it was Murdock's. He asked Murdock, "What does Jean say about all this?"

Murdock's chin was starting to slip off his hand and making its way down to the table and taking the rest of his face with it, "She said…that it's my choice. She said she's leaving it up to me, if I say we stay married then we will, and if I say we don't then we get a divorce…but she said it would be my decision and whatever I decided, that's what we'd do."

"Well," Hannibal took a step back and pulled out a chair to sit down across from the captain, "That was generous of her, it's more than most women would do."

"I know, but I don't like this either," Murdock told him, "Because what if I make the wrong decision? What if I say we stay married, and she really doesn't want to? Or what if I say we get divorced, and she really wants to stay married? She's withholding her own opinion on the matter and I don't like being the one to make this decision, Hannibal."

"That's understandable, it's not an easy choice to make," he said, "_When_ did you two discuss this?"

"The other day," Murdock answered, "After we'd been back from the hotel for a while. I can't figure it out, Hannibal. The only reason she agreed to get married was as a way to protect me, why would anybody do that?"

"Because," Hannibal drew the only logical conclusion, "She loves you and feels an obligation to protect the people she loves. Now, I don't know what all has gone on with you two, and it's really none of my business anyway…"

"That's just it, Colonel, nothing has," Murdock said, "Not really anyway…" he looked at Hannibal and explained, "I told you about when the nurses caught her in my room at the V.A., that was the only time she'd come out there to see me."

"And obviously she left a very _lasting_ impression," Hannibal noted, "I doubt anybody there's going to forget that little caper."

Murdock smirked in remembrance and he told Hannibal, "I believed it for a while…I thought it might actually work." He shook his head, "I can't put my finger on what it is, but something about the whole thing just ain't right, Hannibal."

"Well, I'm sorry to say," Hannibal tried to break the news to Murdock as gently as he could, "I saw this coming."

"You did?" Murdock's eyes widened momentarily.

"Well, I suspected," Hannibal amended his previous statement, "I just didn't figure it would happen this fast. I anticipated the worst, but I hoped for the best…but sometimes two people just can't be married to each other, even if they do love each other."

By now Murdock's head was lying on the table and even though Hannibal could only see one of his eyes, he could still see the sad puppy dog look in it as plain as day.

"It could be just that simple, eh?" he asked, and shook his head slowly, "But it's not…I've got to make the choice, I've got to be the one to say…that it's actually over."

Hannibal reached across the table and rubbed Murdock's back sympathetically, "I'm sorry, Captain."

"What if I didn't?" Murdock asked him, "She said it's my decision, what if I said it's not over? What if I said, we stay married and make it work?"

"It's your choice either way, Murdock," Hannibal agreed, "You and Jean are both adults, whatever you decide I'm sure you can work through it."

Murdock laughed, and it made Hannibal's blood freeze in his veins. It wasn't Murdock's usual laugh, it wasn't a normal laugh by any means, it was one he'd never heard from the pilot before, and he didn't like it.

"There's nothing to work through, Hannibal," he assured the colonel, "It's just as she said, either we stay married or we don't, it _is_ just that simple." He pulled himself up to look Hannibal in the eyes as he said, "Just because we stop being married doesn't mean things are going to go sour between us…does it?"

Hannibal smiled reassuringly and said quietly, "I don't think you have anything to worry about there, not with her."

It was obvious that despite the knowledge he had to handle this situation by himself, Murdock still relied heavily on whatever Hannibal had to offer for help or advice; when he'd said that, Murdock let out a large breath neither man had been aware he was holding onto.

"Have you told the others yet?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock shook his head.

"You want me to talk to her?" Hannibal gestured to the bedroom.

Murdock thought about it for a minute, then slowly nodded. Hannibal got up from the table and crossed through the living room and into the bedroom, where Face had woken up and was taking in his surroundings, and the fact that he was in bed with Jean.

"Face," Hannibal said quietly.

Face turned to the door and asked Hannibal, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm doing fine," Hannibal told him.

"Good…uh, Hannibal," Face pointed over to the sleeping woman, "What's going on here?"

Hannibal laughed and told him, "Never mind about that, Murdock's in the kitchen, would you mind joining him for a minute?"

"Sure," Face said, looking like he couldn't put enough distance between himself and his best friend's wife.

Hannibal grinned at Face's obvious discomfort in the present situation, and once the young lieutenant was out of the room, Hannibal closed the door behind him and went over to the bed and woke Jean up.

"Murdock told me about what's going on," he said to open up the conversation.

Jean grumbled and rubbed her eye and started to get up, "So now you can say 'I told you so' and be on your way."

"I didn't come in here for that," Hannibal told her, "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on."

"I don't know," Jean replied, "It's nothing anybody did…I don't know what it is."

"I think the problem," Hannibal said, "Is that you started out doing this for a purely altruistic reason, and you both tried to make it work as something else, but it didn't work."

"Well whatever it is," Jean told him, "It's on Murdock if we go on with it or not."

"Yes, tell me, _why_ did you do that?" Hannibal asked, "Why did you leave that decision up to him?"

Jean looked at him and explained, "I believe in having choices, I believe in everybody gets a say in something. Now in a marriage when there are children, or rather _going_ to be children, that all comes down to the woman, it's all her say and nothing more…well, this is a choice that someone else could make, and I chose for Murdock to have that option instead of me."

Hannibal thought he knew the real reason why and he said as much, "Better he have to make the decision than you?"

"It's not that," Jean shook her head, "I wouldn't have any problem coming up with the answer."

"Which is?" Hannibal asked.

"It doesn't matter," she answered, "Because it's going to be whatever Murdock decides. If he says we stay married, we will, and if he says we don't, then we won't, it's that easy."

"It isn't for him," Hannibal told her, "He's worried about making the wrong choice."

"There is no wrong choice," Jean insisted, "Whatever he decides, I'll honor it, I'm just sorry we came to this realization _after_ you wasted that hotel weekend on us."

Hannibal waved it off, "Don't worry about that. I think you two need to talk about this and come to a decision together."

"Oh yeah that'll be a lot of fun discussing with you and Face and the angry mudsucker around," Jean replied.

"I already thought about that," Hannibal said, "We're going to get out of here and leave you two alone so you can discuss this in privacy. I don't know who's going to get their wings burnt on this one but I think you each can do a good enough job of picking up the pieces when it happens."

Jean didn't look at him but she responded, "Thanks, Hannibal."

"Hey," he said, getting her to look up at him, "What's the worst that could happen? You two get divorced, you're still friends, you two are _too_ much like each other not to be."

That got a smile out of her, a weak one, but it would do for now.

* * *

Once B.A. had woken up, Hannibal made the suggestion that they head out to Bad Rock and pay Maggie a house call for a change; he was sure that his injuries weren't serious but he thought it would be a good idea to get a second opinion from somebody that actually had her medical license. He and B.A. went in the van and Face followed in his Corvette, leaving Murdock and Jean at Hannibal's apartment for the morning to talk amongst themselves. Hannibal hadn't said _why_ they were staying behind, using only for an explanation that after spending half the night on the floor and the other half sardined in his bed with Face, they deserved a chance to be alone and rest.

However, nobody was getting any rest at the apartment. They'd been talking since the others had left and Murdock had taken to pacing around the apartment as he talked; he'd stopped at the window and looked down to the street and he saw something that raised a red flag in his mind.

"Hey Saint," he said quietly, "Come over here."

Jean went over to the window and looked down to see what he saw; down where Hannibal's car was parked, there was a man opening the hood of it and looking underneath. Murdock and Jean looked at each other and decided to get to the bottom of this, and fast. Murdock opened the window quietly and jumped out of it, and by the sheerest of luck he fell right on the man, who had stood up to see who was howling like a wild animal, and both of them hit the ground, but Murdock was on top and the other man was just knocked out. Jean ran down the stairs to join him and when she saw the man lying out cold on the street, she took a step back and exclaimed, "Oh my God."

Murdock turned to her and asked, "You know him?"

"I about cut his heart out with a broken seltzer bottle," she answered, "And maybe I should've…this is that MP I almost killed at the restaurant, what's he doing here?"

Murdock looked back to the car and said, "He recognized Hannibal's car and he's hardly been using it the last couple of months…he knows Hannibal apparently."

"Let's see what else he knows," Jean said.

Murdock pulled the man up and stuck his hands in the various pockets on the man's jacket and pulled out half a dozen forms of I.D. all with different names, including three military I.D. cards.

"Well this explains how he became an MP but it still doesn't tell us who he is," Murdock said.

He pulled something else out of the man's pocket and he stopped, and dropped it on the ground. The item lying on the street looked like a small remote control of some kind.

"What do you think that's for?" Jean asked.

"My guess," Murdock said as he picked it up and looked at the controls, "And this is strictly a guess…but it looks to me like the detonator for a bomb."

"For this car?" Jean asked him.

Murdock checked under the hood and didn't see anything that had recently been added, and he went through the rest of the man's pockets and didn't come up with anything looking like a bomb and he shook his head grimly.

"My professional opinion," he told Jean as he stood up, "This is the guy that we've been after for Decker's sake…it looks like he might be in the hitman business as well given he's got more aliases than Sybil. So the control must be for Decker's car…" he froze and turned to Jean, "Which either he's going to be in soon, or _is_ in now."

A horrible thought occurred to them both and the whole puzzle was starting to fall into place. Decker's car was rigged with a bomb, and it would be set off by the control this man had; when Decker's car was in use and had him as a passenger. _Or_ a driver. The odds were good that by now Decker was out of the utility closet _and_ Murdock's straitjacket, and very eager to find the A-Team and make them suffer for humiliating him and getting away again. And it was very possible that he and the MPs _knew_ that one of the A-Team had been hit last night because there _had_ been a struggle getting Hannibal in the van and getting away, and it was also a safe guess that even in an emergency, the A-Team would _not_ go to a hospital for help, but rather would look up a doctor who could help them in the privacy of his or her own office, or home. And just maybe they had already thought of Maggie Sullivan as being that likely candidate, which was right where Hannibal and the others were heading right now!

"We've got to find Hannibal and the others before Decker does," Murdock told her, "Come on!"


	24. Chapter 24

Murdock knew they couldn't leave their uninvited guest just laying around, so Jean helped him drag him up to Hannibal's apartment and Murdock tied him up while Jean tried calling both the phone in the van and in Face's 'Vette. She shook her head grimly and told him that nobody was answering.

"That means either they're in Maggie's house and can't hear the phones," Murdock concluded as he made the last knot around the man's wrists, confining him to a chair, "Or that Decker's already got them."

"I don't get it," Jean said, "What is this place Bad Rock? And for that matter, where the hell is it?"

"I know where it is," Murdock told her, "That's where we ran into Maggie, the woman who looked at you a few days ago. They stopped in there when B.A. was shot, and he needed a transfusion. He and I have the same blood type, you know."

Jean blinked, "He willingly went through a transfusion putting your blood in with his?"

"Well naturally the big mudsucker was a little high strung in the beginning but after the nature of my blood took its course he started to mellow out about it, for a while anyway." Satisfied that their prisoner wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, Murdock ransacked the apartment looking for the keys to Hannibal's car.

Jean tried the phone one more time and didn't get anybody, she hoped they weren't already too late.

"Murdock," another thought occurred to her, "What do you think the odds are that the control for the bomb was just a backup plan? What if the bomb's got a timer on it and the remote was just incase it didn't explode at the time it was set for?"

"That is the logic I'm approaching this situation with," he told her, "That's _why_ we have to find the others before Decker does." He finally found Hannibal's keys and he practically flew down the stairs to reach the car, and Jean was right behind him.

"How long is it going to take us to get out to Bad Rock?" she asked as they got in and he started the car up.

"Let's see," Murdock checked the speedometer to see how fast the car could go, "120 miles an hour, uh I should be able to get us there in 15 minutes."

"I hope we're in time," she said.

* * *

"Really, Hannibal," Maggie said as she finished tying the new bandage on his arm, "I'd think a man your age would be able to find less dangerous fields of work by now."

"What can I say?" Hannibal replied with his trademark grin, "Somehow the idea of being a fireman and running into burning buildings just seemed too boring for my liking."

"Yeah, unless we're hired for it," Face added, "I'll tell you, Hannibal, I don't mind doing our job but I _do_ mind every time we take a new mission, we're not just protecting our clients."

"Here we go again," B.A. muttered under his breath, looking the other way.

"Maggie, I'll have you know any time we take a case for anybody, we suddenly become a jack-of-all-trades," he counted them off on his fingers, "We've been farmers, carpenters, mechanics, bakers, firemen, policemen, life guards, bodyguards, cab drivers…"

"You forgot the butcher and the candlestick maker," B.A. told him and laughed.

"What's the matter, Face?" Hannibal asked, "You have a problem with expanding your career options?"

"Is this really what we hire out our services for?" Face replied, "And then to top it off, half the time we don't even get paid, and of the remaining ones, very few of them can ever afford our rates."

Hannibal chuckled and said, "Face, the day you stop complaining is the day I know to be worried about you."

"Ha ha," Face dryly remarked.

"Well Maggie, what's your final diagnosis?" Hannibal asked.

She smiled at him and said, "I think you'll live, I'd give your shoulder a week."

"That's what I thought," he replied.

The phone rang and Maggie went to answer it and she'd just barely gotten out a 'hello?' when she had to pull the phone away from her ear because someone was screaming into the other end.

"What is it?" Hannibal asked as he got up from his chair.

"I don't know," Maggie replied, she put the receiver to her ear again and tried to talk, "H-hello? Who is…Murdock? M…Murdock calm down, what's going on?"

"Here, let me talk to him," Hannibal took the phone from her and put the receiver to his own ear, "Alright Captain, try that again nice and slow."

His own ear about exploded at the high frequency ranting and raving from the pilot, but he was able to decipher part of the message. "Hannibal, you gotta get out of there quick, Decker's on the way!"

The rest of it was lost in a jumble and Hannibal was trying to get the captain to slow down to 100 words per minute or less, "Murdock, calm down, _what_ is going on? Where are you?"

He couldn't make out what Murdock said next because it sounded like he was fighting with somebody, and Hannibal felt his heart rise to his throat at the thought that the MPs had gotten him. Instead, he heard somebody else take the phone, and he heard Jean's unmistakable voice scream at him, saying very bluntly, "For God's sake, Hannibal, GET-OUT!" and he heard her slam down the phone.

Hannibal looked at the receiver for a second and hung it up and told the others, "Sounds like company's coming."

"Who?" Maggie asked.

"Colonel Decker and the military police," Hannibal explained as he recovered his jacket and pointed to B.A. and Face, "Let's get out of here." He turned to the doctor and said, "Maggie, it might be a good idea if you could come up with a quick alibi as to how you couldn't possibly have seen us anytime today."

She nodded, "I got it. Be careful, Hannibal."

"I'm always careful," he told her.

"No you ain't," B.A. corrected Hannibal's statement.

Hannibal looked at him, then turned back to Maggie and said, "Take care of yourself, kid," and he kissed her on the cheek, "We'll be back."

"I hope so," she told him, "Preferably in only three pieces."

* * *

Murdock had had the idea to try calling Maggie's home and seeing if anybody answered there, and when the idea had hit him the closest phone they were near was at Jean's house. He slammed on the brakes and they ran inside to try their luck; after Jean had given the final word on the call she had disappeared upstairs for a brief minute and came back down half in her Kamikaze Racer suit.

"We know that Decker doesn't have them yet," she said, "So we've got a little time, that's _some_ relief."

Murdock was tempted to ask why she was dressed like that but he knew; Jean had explained before, the suit was weighed down by an additional 30 pounds because it was padded to protect the stuntmen in it, generally from being injured in crashes or wipeouts, but he knew that she was figuring it would also come in handy for a little extra protection from the blast of an explosion. Neither of them knew what the situation would be once they found Hannibal and the others, and they were going to take plenty of risks, but no unnecessary ones. All the same, they both knew the reality of what they could be facing, and Murdock was grateful he knew that Hannibal, Face and B.A. were alright for the moment, because he needed a moment of his own for their farewell, on the offchance that one of them didn't make it out of this.

Jean was every bit the realist he was in this instance, her face was hard and emotionless as usual but her eyes were filling up with tears as the realization hit hard that they were each prepared to face their own mortality today.

"Murdock," she said in a voice that betrayed her hardened expression, she shook her head slightly and said, "No matter what happens, I love you, and I'm glad I married you."

For a moment he was too choked up for any words, he smiled at her, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. "I love you too," he told her, "Come on."

Jean carried her helmet in her hand and followed him out the door; they had just gotten off the porch when Murdock stopped and looked to her and said, "Maybe Hannibal wasn't so crazy with his idea about Decker, but I think he had it backwards."

"What do you mean?" Jean asked.

He ran over to her car and she followed as he explained, "Two sides can put their differences aside when they share a common interest, and in this case it was finding out who was trying to kill Decker, well we've found him, now Decker's out chasing Hannibal and the others because he doesn't know. What if we got a hold of some of the MPs and got them to get on the horn to Decker and tell him the bad news that he's going to be blown sky high soon if he doesn't vacate his car?"

"Think they'll go along with it?" Jean asked.

Murdock held up the I.D. cards he'd taken off the man, "They'll have to believe something's wrong with this, it's worth a try, come on."

They got in her car and Murdock drove them out of there like a bat out of hell. They had just pulled up to the Federal Building when they saw an army car that had also just stopped, and they saw one very familiar man get out of the car.

"Crane!" they said as they jumped out of Jean's convertible.

"You two again," Captain Crane said dryly, "What're you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?" Jean asked, "Why aren't you with Decker?"

"I just got out of the hospital," he answered, "During the escape last night I got shot by one of the other men."

"And you stayed for one night?" Murdock asked.

"It wasn't a serious wound," Crane explained, "I spent most of the night in the waiting room."

"You gotta get on the radio and tell Decker to abort his mission," Jean said, "He's going to die and he's going to take down anyone in his vicinity."

"What're you talking about?" Crane asked.

Murdock took the I.D. cards out of his pocket and showed them to Crane, "Does this face ring a bell to you?"

"Yeah," Crane nodded, "That's Corporal Munroe."

"I'd double check on that," Jean said, "He's got several aliases here alone, and _he's_ the one that rigged Decker's car to crash and _now_ he's got it set to blow up at a moment's notice."

Crane did a double take, "Are you serious?"

"Crane," Jean said firmly, then started yelling at him as she said, "Do I LOOK like this is a joke? Would we waste our time and risk our lives and our very freedom coming back here if this wasn't real? It's my job to want Decker dead, you're his right hand man, it's supposed to be your job to help keep him alive when he's off on some idiotic self serving mission."

"You _are_ serious," he noted.

"You got it," she replied.

It took a few seconds for the news to fully hit Crane, and he told them, "He went off by himself this morning."

"You mean he's driving by himself?" Murdock said.

"Correct, but nobody knows where he went."

"We do," Jean said, "There's a little town called Bad Rock, there's a doctor there, we'll assume he's not going to respond to his radio for whatever stupid reason he has, round up the army bums and follow us, we'll show you the way, and hurry!"

"Did you ever think the day would come that we'd actually be _working_ alongside these people?" Murdock asked her when Crane had left.

"No," she replied, "And it's not an idea I plan to get used to either."

Murdock pointed to Crane's car and Jean followed him over to it. Murdock picked up the radio and tried to pick up Decker, but there was no answer.

"You don't think he's already done gone _kaboom_, do you?" Jean asked.

"I hope not," Murdock said.

"Crane better hurry up and get the rest of those jerks out here," she told him, "We don't have much time to wait."

* * *

Face had been the first one to see the spinning red lights on top of the car and he felt his heart sink down into his stomach, he knew that it was Decker, it was always Decker, this man was twice as stubborn as a mule and three times as much the jackass of one. He stepped on the gas and jerked the wheel all the way to the right and just avoided colliding with Decker's car, but it was right behind him and Face knew unless he did something quick, he wouldn't be able to lose the man.

"There he is!" Hannibal told B.A. as he stuck his head out the window on his side for a better look, "Step on it, B.A., let's see if we can catch up with them."

"Something ain't right, Hannibal, where're the rest of them?" B.A. asked.

"I don't know," Hannibal replied as he grabbed one of the rifles from the back, "But we better take care of this one first and we'll worry about that bridge when we cross it."

Hannibal didn't know how fast the two cars were going but the van was sped up to 85 and in a few seconds was gaining on Decker's car; Hannibal took aim for the tires and fired, but he missed because it was just at that moment that B.A. had to swerve to the other side to keep from hitting an electric fence. They took the long way around but they finally caught up with Decker again, and just in time because while Decker never lost track of Face, he was catching up with the 'Vette and just about to ram it. Hannibal fired again and it definitely got Decker's attention but unfortunately once again Hannibal had missed the tires; instead Decker sped up to put some distance between the van and his car, he buried the gas pedal to the floor and got several yards ahead of Face's car and then slammed on the brakes. Face swerved to the right and likewise did the same and just missed crashing into the side of Decker's car.

Decker was out of his car and had his gun drawn and pointed at Face's head before Face could even get his door open. "Don't move, Peck," he warned him.

Face held his hands up high over his head and looked straight ahead, move? He didn't even dare breathe.

The van stopped about 20 feet away from Decker's car and Hannibal and B.A. got out, Decker drove his point home by pressing his gun against the side of Face's head and he warned them, "One wrong move, Smith, and your lieutenant's going to pay for it."

"Decker, you're insane," Hannibal told him.

"Drop you weapons, Smith," Decker warned him as his finger moved towards the trigger, "And don't think for one second that I won't."

Hannibal and B.A. threw down their guns and put their hands up. Decker ordered Face to get out of the car, and he did, keeping his arms up in the air for the most part. Decker used his free hand to pat him down and check his pockets for any concealed weapons, and finding none, he ordered Face over to the other car and told him to get in. Face didn't dare press his luck, though he dragged his feet on the matter as best as he could to buy a few spare seconds, hoping that Hannibal had a plan for this. His eyes met the colonel's as he passed the other two men by and a disturbing revelation settled over him as he realized that this time Hannibal was without a plan, for the first time in his life.

He was just about to the car when they heard other cars approaching; they saw Jean's blue car speeding towards them, with six army cars loaded with MPs behind them. Everybody had the same thought, which was what the hell was going on? Murdock stopped the car and Jean was already out of it, running towards Decker and Face, dressed in her white stunt suit and carrying her helmet with her.

"Face, get away from that car!" she told him, "You too, Decker!"

"If you think I'm going to listen to you, you're out of your mind," Decker responded.

"Face, RUN!" Jean told him.

Face didn't have to be told twice, he took off running and didn't stop until he was with Hannibal and B.A. Jean had put her helmet on and pushed down the visor and ran towards Decker, who was in the middle of demanding to know what the hell was going on, when she threw all of her weight against him and pushed him away and knocked him to the ground, and just in time. About two seconds after Decker hit the ground, his car exploded and Jean was lost in a wave of flames and black smoke.

"Jean!" Murdock screamed at the top of his lungs.

"My God," Hannibal drummed out as he saw the explosion and watched in awe. He turned and yelled at B.A. and Murdock to get the fire extinguishers out of the van, they were already on it.

Decker had felt the heat on his back and heard the noise of debris from the car flying right over him, he rolled over onto his back and saw what was left of the car engulfed in flames and black smoke pouring out of every direction and he was dumbstruck.

In the midst of the fire and smoke, Jean crawled out from the scene of the wreckage on her hands, not so much crawling as pulling herself along on the ground with the muscle in her arms alone. Her white suit was now charred black in many places, and the flames had caught hold of it and in fact the arms and legs of the uniform were on fire. Murdock and B.A. came running up with two large extinguishers and sprayed foam on her from head to foot until the flames had been put out. When she was, B.A. turned his attention to the burning wreckage and did his best to extinguish it as well before the fire had a chance to spread any further than it had. Murdock had pushed Jean flat on the ground and turned her one way and the other to make sure she was fully put out, then he put his hands on her helmet and carefully removed it.

B.A. had just come back to see how Jean was doing when Murdock took her helmet off, and the sergeant froze in his tracks at the sight of Jean's burnt face. It was completely unrecognizable and he instantly became sickened at the damage done in so short a time. B.A. hadn't realized he wasn't breathing until he saw what looked like Murdock peeling Jean's face off, and he realized it was a mask; then he felt the exhale leave his body as he realized it was flame retardant material used for fire stunts in movies, like Jean had talked about before.

Decker had managed to push himself up on his hands and from there he was able to stand up, though he found staying up a difficult task because his legs felt like rubber. He walked over to where the four commandoes were crowded around the woman lying on the ground and he noticed that she was not moving, and clearly he wasn't the only one because Hannibal and Face knelt down on either side of her to see if she was still breathing.

"Jean can you hear me?" Hannibal asked as he pulled one of her eyelids open and watched it fall back into place, "Jean, come on now this isn't funny, Jean, Jean!"

"My God," Decker managed to drudge up, the first thing he'd said since the explosion. He turned around and saw Crane and a dozen other MPs standing behind him. Decker walked over to Crane and asked him, "What the hell happened?"

"They came and got us when they found out about the bomb, sir," Crane told him, "We tried radioing to warn you, but there was no response."

Decker turned back around and looked again at the wreckage, and at the four men he had been hunting for the longest time, and the woman who had risked her own life to save his for some reason, and now it looked like she'd paid the ultimate price for it.

* * *

Jean had survived the explosion and been rushed to the hospital, but there was already a circus waiting for them when they arrived. Somehow somebody had gotten word that one of the actors for Hollywood's next anticipated blockbuster movie had been injured in an explosion and when she was unloaded from the ambulance she had been wheeled past dozens of reporters, cameramen, and in general a bunch of nosey people asking a hundred questions, though she least of all had been in no condition to answer them. The A-Team had followed the ambulance to the hospital and all of them bore with having their pictures snapped up a couple dozen times as they followed alongside the gurney and into the hospital. And bringing up the rear behind all of them, and staying in the back where he felt he belonged right now, was Decker. He'd come first of all to know if Jean would live, and when the news finally came in that she would, he went to the room she'd been put in to find an answer to his second question.

"Why did she do it?"

"Why did who do what?" Hannibal dryly asked as he kept his eyes on the woman unconscious in the hospital bed. All four of them had gathered around the bed and showed no sign of going anywhere anytime soon for anything, Decker and all his men and all the power assigned to him by the military be damned.

"Why the hell did she push me out of the way?" Decker asked Hannibal.

"Why, Decker? You complaining?" Hannibal replied.

"Why did she do it?" Decker repeated his previous question.

"You'll have to ask her that yourself as soon as she wakes up," Hannibal told him, "_Whenever_ that is."

Decker backed off a bit at that one and after a brief pause he asked, "What did the doctors say?"

"Well she got burnt pretty good," Hannibal said, "30 pounds of padding and the fire burns through it like it's paper."

He could tell. Already the damage was done, the skin on Jean's arms from her shoulders down to her elbows was blistered and every individual bubble of skin looked ready to erupt at a moment's notice.

"Sir?" everybody turned and saw Crane standing in the doorway with some papers in his hand, "Sorry to disturb you, Colonel Decker, but we got a report back on Munroe. After we found him tied up in Smith's apartment we ran his fingerprints."

"What'd you find, Crane?" Decker asked.

"His real name is Robert Buchanan, sir."

"Buchanan?" Hannibal and Decker repeated, and looked at each other.

Face turned to Murdock and commented, "That name sounds familiar."

"It should," Hannibal said, "Let me guess, Robert _had_ an older brother named James."

"Correct, how did you know?" Crane asked.

"Because," Hannibal turned and leered at Decker, "James Buchanan served in Vietnam and was killed suddenly and unexpectedly when he was caught in the middle of a Cong hospital bombing."

Never before had Hannibal ever seen Decker look mortified at his own actions, but now with this sudden revelation, Roderick looked like he was very tempted to crawl under a rock somewhere and die. They should get so lucky, Hannibal thought.

"That'll be all, Crane," Decker told him.

"Yes sir," he replied, and went out the door.

Jean started coughing and shot up in bed choking. Murdock went over to the bed and got her to drink some water and after a minute the coughing fit subsided.

"How're you feeling, kid?" Hannibal asked as they all went back over to see her.

Jean looked at her arms and said, "I had a sunburn so bad once that my skin peeled right off the next day, I was pulling handfuls of skin off my body…_this_ is worse than that ever was." She looked up at Murdock and asked him, "Well Murdock, has everything been taken care of?"

"Yeah," he answered, "They found the guy, I don't know what they're going to do with him but I think they'll spring for having him shot at dawn."

"Fine," she tiredly replied, then her eyes settled on the people standing in front of her and she said weakly, "Hannibal, would you mind if I had a few minutes alone with our friend, Decker?"

"Not at all," Hannibal said, "We'll be right outside, yell if you need anything."

"I'll yell even if I _don't_ need anything," Jean told him as she started to sit up in the bed.

Murdock was the last of them to walk out of the room, he was careful not to touch her where she'd been burnt and he kissed her and told her he'd be right outside too if she needed him, and he walked past Decker without ever looking at the man and closed the door behind him.

"Well," Jean said as she looked up at him, It's just the two of us."

"Miss Rhodes…" Decker started to say, but she cut him off.

"Come over here, Decker," Jean said as she tossed the blanket back, "I'm going to show you something, not because I think you're worthy of seeing it, but to make sure that we understand each other perfectly. Nobody else has ever seen this, so consider yourself a very privileged person."

Decker walked over to the bed and Jean grabbed the collar of her hospital gown and ripped it down the middle and ripped open the chest of her gown and pointed, "You see those scars, Decker? Do they look familiar to you? You know what they are? That's what's left of the two .50 caliber slugs that just missed my heart a year ago."

Decker closed his eyes for a second, and upon opening them again he asked her, because he sensed she was waiting for just that, "How did that happen?"

"Some good ol' army boy just like yourself, tried to kill me when I was going to blow the whistle on the trafficking ring he was running from _within_ the military."

Decker glared at her, "Are you serious?"

"You hear me laughing?" she asked him, "It was really a brilliant plan, smuggle weapons, drugs _and_ new recruits to the drug cartels overseas, and kill anybody who got in the way, including the straitlaced recruits who refused to go along with it. I was the only witness to the massacre and some guy, used to be a soldier just like you, he shot me so nobody would ever find out what he was doing. It was the A-Team that saved my life, I _would've_ died if it hadn't been for them, so hell yes you better believe I'd do whatever it took to help them escape from you."

Decker looked down at her and asked, "Why _did_ you save my life?"

She looked up at him and answered in an emotionless tone, "Well it wasn't for your sake, believe me. Make no mistake about it, Decker, if I had it my way, you'd already be six feet underground. I didn't save you for your own sake, but for _them_. Hannibal wants you alive for some reason, I don't know why, but the others agree with him, and as I said I'd do anything for them, even if that meant sparing your life, much as I detested having to do it. You know something, Roddy? You're just like me, no good can ever come from you."

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"We're exactly alike," Jean told him, "That's what makes you different from Hannibal, I've noticed you _are_ both alike in some ways, but he and Face and B.A., they're good people, they help people, they save their lives, they help anybody that the likes of you in the military or the cops _won't_ help. Not me," she shook her head, "All I've done in my adult life is cause death and destruction, just like you, Roddy ol' boy. If ever there was anybody on God's green earth that was beyond all hope, all redemption, it was me…why would the A-Team waste its time trying to help me? I still haven't found the answer to that one, but I've seen death and lived to tell about it, and for that I'm glad that they did."

Jean leaned forward and started grabbing at the back of her hospital gown trying to pull it up over her head, and Decker asked her, "_Now_ what're you doing?"

"Oh those were through and through shots," Jean told him, "Don't you want to see how nicely they came _out_?"

"That's alright," Decker shook his head, "I believe you."

Which was good because that was the boldest face lie she'd ever told and she knew it; somehow she figured that Decker wouldn't want any further proof to confirm her story once he saw the real deal.

"I spent eight hours in surgery, had two blood transfusions, first one just ran out of me, I woke up halfway through the operation, had to be put under a second time, and B.A. Baracus was in the operating room with me the whole time. Do you know that B.A. is scared to death of flying? He can't stand it, and there's no power on earth that can get him over it, every time they go somewhere he has to be drugged and knocked out, otherwise he panics and he gets dangerous when he does that. When I got shot, Murdock flew us to the hospital, and B.A. didn't even notice where we were until I told him about it the next day, when he realized he had flown in a helicopter he hit the floor and left a permanent dent in it. And during the flight there, it was Hannibal Smith that kept me awake and kept me going long enough to hand me over to the doctors. I had already accepted my fate and that I was going to die that night, but he wouldn't let me. He forced me to stay with him until we got to the hospital, he was the only thing keeping me going long enough to survive the trip. And they didn't waste any time, as soon as Murdock got that bird in the air it was Face that radioed ahead to the hospital so they were waiting for us the second we hit the ground, I'm told that he spent a good part of those eight hours in the waiting room praying for me."

She laughed bitterly and said, "Nobody's ever wasted a prayer on me for anything, only time anybody would, would be if they were praying for me _to_ die. He and Murdock, they were the first people I saw when I woke up the next morning, they stayed, they risked being caught just so I would know they were still there, do you have any idea what that's like? No, I don't think anybody would waste a prayer on you either come to think of it. Now I know it's all politics and you got your job to do, your orders to follow, you would've made a good Nazi, Decker, I'm sure of that. But I'm going to tell you something here and now…you already proved that you're not convinced that General Morrison is dead, and if he's alive and there's a way to prove he deliberately sent them to rob that bank to set them up, _or_ there's a way to get them a presidential pardon, I'm going to find out what it is. And until that day comes, you can resume your chase with them but I can guarantee you Decker, I'm going to be there every step of the way making your life _hell_. If you think Hannibal and his friends are relentless, just wait until you've had to go through _my_ obstacles a couple of times."

Decker was quiet for a minute and just looked at her, contemplating what she had said. Finally he gave his own response, which was short and simple, "I look forward to it, Miss Rhodes, good day. I hope you feel better soon."

Jean sat back against the pillows and watched him head towards the door and without a second glance back at her, he left.

Decker pulled the door shut behind him and saw Hannibal, Murdock, Face and B.A. all lined up against the wall looking at him.

"Alright, Decker," Hannibal said, "We're here, what's it going to be?"

He had to stop and think about this. He'd been trying for months to catch the A-Team and now here they were, all in a row like ducks to shoot, they had practically been delivered into his hand. And he could tell that, impossible though it seemed, they were willing to leave quietly and face the consequences now that they'd been cornered, rather than make a scene in the hospital and take the chance of involving any innocent bystanders.

"72 hours," he told them.

"72 hours?" Face repeated, and added cynically, "What is that, the time left before our execution?"

Decker went over to Hannibal and looked him dead in the eyes as he told him, "That's how long I'm giving you to put as much distance between me and you as is possible, before I come looking for you."

Hannibal was dumbstruck for a second and didn't know how to respond to that. He recovered and said only, "I appreciate it, Decker."

Decker started to walk past them, but he stopped and turned towards Murdock and told him, "Congratulations on your release _and_ marriage, Murdock, and good luck, not knowing your wife any better than I do now, I have a feeling you're going to need it."

Murdock's eyes opened wide and he tilted his head to the side and faked falling back in a dead faint. He shook Decker's hand uncertainly and said, "Thank you, Decker, that means a lot coming from you."

Hannibal watched as Decker left the hospital and he chuckled at the man's last remark.

Author's note: We're coming down to the end, only one more chapter left to go.


	25. Chapter 25

"I should've let Decker die in the explosion, I should've," Jean said later that night.

"Well why didn't you?" Murdock asked her, "For all you've said you wanted to kill him, you had a chance to let nature take its course and you didn't, instead you did the right thing, why?"

Jean looked up at him and said, "I thought maybe if I saved a life for once instead of taking it, it would break the chain and I wouldn't _want_ to anymore."

"It's an interesting way to look at it," Murdock said, "Is it working so far?"

"No," she replied, "Now Decker _knows_ you're involved."

"He always knew," Murdock told her, "But he's not going to do anything about it."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Oh, I think today was a _very_…_humbling_ experience for Decker," Murdock told him, "He found out the hard way that even his best planned actions have consequences for him to suffer in the end, even if it takes 15 years."

"I hope you're right, Murdock," Jean said as she looked up at the ceiling, "I hope you're right."

Murdock had agreed to stay the night and he was in the process of getting the second bed in the room ready, he turned around and asked Jean, "So how're you really?"

Jean pulled the cover down, revealing her arms _were_ blistered, but not nearly as bad as they had been for Decker's benefit. It had been one hell of a trick getting the movie makeup skin on in between her being removed from the ER and when Decker came into her room but it had been well worth the trouble for that look on his face when he first stepped in.

"The doctors say in a couple of days I'll be able to get out of here," she said, "I called the studio, they have finished shooting so I'm currently out of work again, and I know that Decker's given you guys 72 hours to get out of town so I'm going to be on my own when they let me go."

"He has given Hannibal, Face and B.A. 72 hours to get out of town," Murdock told her, "I was never considered a part of the Team because I was insane, and now that I'm released I am completely off the army's radar, so I can go or stay anywhere I want at any time."

Jean smiled at him weakly and said, "But you're going with them."

He smiled at her in return and answered, "You knew I would…as the snake said to the fox after he bit him…"

Murdock didn't get to finish that thought because someone was knocking on the door. It opened up and Hannibal came in, "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Not at all," Murdock answered.

"Where're B.A. and Face?" Jean asked.

"Back at the house," Hannibal said.

"Getting ready to leave," she said.

"Could be," he replied, "Murdock, you got everything here you need?"

"I gotta run back to the house and get a couple things for the night," he told Hannibal, "I'll be back."

When Murdock had left, Hannibal went over to Jean's bed and asked her, "How're you feeling, kid?"

"I'm alright," she answered, "The nurses tried slipping me some pills earlier, but I didn't take them."

"Have you two reached an agreement yet?" he asked.

"No," she shook her head, "We're still debating on the matter, we're going to leave it alone until he can come back to Los Angeles again."

"Ah, I see," Hannibal told her, "Incidentally there's something I've been wondering about and I thought you could explain it to me. The night that we came home and you were on the phone screaming at Crowley, what was that about? You had called them before I ever told anybody what my plan was, so how did you know what to tell them?"

"I didn't know _what_ your plan was, but I knew you would come up with one and I told Crowley since he and Kellerman had already helped us once before with that fake funeral, that they were going to help us again, _whatever_ it was you came up with, they were going to help us and I told them to be ready at a moment's notice because I would call them as soon as I knew what it was."

"I see," Hannibal said, "But how did you know that you could trust them?"

"We were able to the first time," she told him, "Besides, I _didn't_ know, but I was willing to take the chance that we could, and it paid off."

"You're right, it did," Hannibal replied, "But if you ever go out to Vegas, don't press your luck like that at the casino, I doubt you'd do as well."

* * *

Murdock could hear Jean tossing and turning in the hospital bed, moaning and mumbling. He could've expected this would happen. He got out of the bed on the other side of the room and quietly padded over to the bed Jean was occupying and he watched her twist and flop around in the bed restlessly, moaning under her breath constantly. When she finally stopped in one position for more than a few seconds, Murdock took the opportunity to gently pry her left arm open and slip Bogey the Bear into place; Jean's arm locked down on the bear like a hydraulic press and subconsciously she must have realized that something was different because she started to calm down.

Murdock heard somebody tapping at the door, followed by Hannibal's muffled voice asking quietly, "Murdock, is everything okay in there?"

He went over to the door and opened it up and let the colonel in. Hannibal looked over to the bed and asked, "Something wrong?"

"Yeah," Murdock answered as he closed the door, "One of those nurses slipped Jean a couple of morphine pills earlier when nobody was looking, and now she's doped up again, it's been making her act weird."

"Oh boy."

"I'm leaving Bogey with her to keep her company while we're gone," Murdock explained.

Hannibal looked to the bed again and saw that Jean had just about buried her whole face in the back of the stuffed bear's head; she had stopped rolling around on the bed and finally settled in one place and was breathing heavily but evenly, it seemed that she would finally sleep and stay that way, for a while at least.

"You're a good friend, Murdock," Hannibal told the captain.

Murdock looked down at the floor and responded, "I'm still trying to be a good husband."

"I heard."

Murdock looked to the side and said, "It's going to be a long night, Hannibal, you better go on ahead and I'll join you guys in the morning."

"There's no rush, Murdock," Hannibal told him.

* * *

Nobody had to ask the next morning how Jean's night was; she hadn't said a word since she woke up, her hair was all sticking up in tiny spikes and sometime during the night she had bitten Bogey's ear and still had it in her mouth, her arms were wrapped tightly around the bear and her lips were pursed so close together her mouth was about ready to disappear altogether. Murdock had left the hospital room early in the morning and so Hannibal, B.A. and Face had stayed behind to keep an eye on her until further notice. With a little persuasion, Hannibal and Face managed to get her to separate her jaws and release the death grip on the teddy bear's ear and take the toy away from her before she could try it again.

"When the hell can I get out of this place?" she asked Hannibal.

"For one thing, when the doctors say you can, which should be soon, and for another, as soon as we can get you out of here without that press circus down below," Hannibal said as he looked out the window, "I'd like to know who got them all here in the first place."

"Somebody put the word out that the explosion Jean was involved in had to do with the filming of the movie," Face said, "If that's what people want to believe I say more power to them." He turned to Jean and pointed at her and told her, "You wait, let this keep up and you're going to be a celebrity before you even get a starring role."

"You really think so, Face?" she asked.

"Well if I'm lying," he said, "May I be attacked by a giant mountain lion."

"Hey Face," he heard Murdock come up behind him.

Face turned around and started to talk but instead he screamed when he saw a giant tiger in front of him and he jumped five feet across the room and over to Hannibal before he realized that it was just a giant stuffed tiger Murdock had been carrying over his head.

"Well it's no mountain lion but it's close enough for me," Hannibal told him.

"Very funny, Murdock," Face dryly remarked.

"What is that?" Jean asked.

Murdock hauled the tiger, which was about as big as he was, over his head like a trophy he'd bagged and dropped it at the foot of Jean's bed and told her, "That, is for you, I figured you might need a larger animal that can take more abuse than poor Bogey can."

"It would definitely take longer to bite _his_ ear off," Face murmured to Hannibal.

"Very nice, Murdock," Hannibal told him, "Where'd you find it?"

"In the hospital's gift shop, on the top shelf," Murdock answered, "And you know what, Hannibal? Somebody needs to put the word out that they have to build those shelves stronger, _I_ just barely managed to climb up them."

"I'm sorry I missed that," Jean said sarcastically, "You must've made a great monkey."

Hannibal went back to the window and said, "Well the crowd's starting to disappear, I'll go talk to the doctors about getting you released."

"That's the second order of business, first order is finding me some clothes I can wear out of here," Jean told him.

"I got that one taken care of," Face told her, and picked up a travel bag from the floor, "At least it'll be something to get you home in."

Jean went into the bathroom and came out a couple minutes later changed, and everybody noticed she was wearing a pair of jeans one size too large, and an army green tank top that was two sizes too large on her and she said, "I'd sure like to know how come every time this happens I always wind up with B.A.'s clothes to wear?"

Hannibal looped his finger through the back of the shirt's neck and snagged the tag to get a look at it and he told her, "That's _my_ shirt."

"It is?" she asked, "Well what do you know? I guess you're getting pudgy too in your middle age, eh Hannibal?"

He was willing to let that one slide because he knew she'd had a rough night and just wanted to get the hell out of there, and he couldn't blame her.

* * *

They got Jean checked out of the hospital and back to her home early that afternoon. She was still out of it from the morphine so B.A. carried her up the stairs and helped Hannibal get her settled in her own bed. Hannibal had also brought up the giant tiger Murdock had gotten her and placed it on the bed beside her, for company or a pillow he wasn't sure yet. After B.A. had left the room, Hannibal went over to the bed and stared down at Jean. Through her half closed eyes she looked up at him and asked, "What're you looking at?"

"I was just thinking," he told her humorously, "You remind me of a movie star."

She smiled weakly and replied, "Let me guess, Pearl White, the stuntwoman from the old Perils of Pauline serial."

He smiled in return and said, "I see you've done your homework on the history of this business."

"Yeah well, I just hope I don't end up like her," Jean told him.

"Alright, Colonel, that's the last of it," Murdock said as he came up the stairs and into the room, "So I guess this means we're going to be leaving now."

"I guess so," Hannibal replied.

Murdock went over to the bed and sat down on the edge so he could see Jean as he spoke to her. By now she was more asleep than awake, but Murdock took her hand in his and told her, "We've got to go now, Jean, but I'll come back and see you as soon as we can get back to Los Angeles, okay? Okay…" he kissed Jean's hand and let go of it reluctantly, and got up from the bed.

Hannibal looked at him and did nothing for a minute, and then he told Murdock, "We're not going anywhere, Murdock, we're going to stay right here."

"What?" Murdock looked at him confused.

"I said," Hannibal calmly explained, "We, are not going anywhere, we're not leaving the city."

"You can't do that," Jean said as she suddenly sat up, "Decker's going to be looking for you."

"That's right," Hannibal replied, "He said we had 3 days to get as far away from him as possible, meaning that's the first place he's going to look is someplace far from here. So if we stay here instead, he'll never know where to find us."

"Man," she said as she fell back against the pillows, "I'm never going to figure you guys out."

"It's like I told you before," Hannibal explained, "Decker lives for the chase, he knows that once it's finally over, the purpose goes out of his life, so while he would never admit it, he needs for us to always get away, so he can continue chasing after us, it's the only thing that's keeping him going."

"And they said Murdock was the crazy one," she said in disbelief.

"Guilty as charged," Murdock responded with a big grin, "You mean it, Colonel? We're really staying here?"

"Sure, why not?" Hannibal replied, and nodded toward Jean, "I don't think Jean's in any condition right now to be on her own, she needs _somebody_ around here to help her."

"Why didn't you tell him that before?" Jean wanted to know.

"Oh, I have my reasons," he answered.

Jean turned to Murdock and told him, "Just as I suspected, Decker's crazy and Hannibal's just plain weird."

Murdock laughed as he fell back on the foot of the bed.

* * *

It had been a few days since Jean was brought home from the hospital and things were getting back to relatively normal. It was after midnight and Hannibal had been in a dead sleep when he was woken up by the phone ringing. He'd swapped rooms with B.A. so his was on the ground floor so he had the closest access to the phone in the living room, dragging himself out of bed he answered it, "Hello?" The response on the other end shocked him fully awake, "What!?"

When he hung up, he got Face and B.A. up and told them where they were going. Jean had called Hannibal and asked for them to come down to a bar where she and Murdock currently were and she told them to hurry but didn't specify why.

"You think they're in any trouble?" Face asked Hannibal.

"If they were I'd think she would have said so," he replied, "I don't know what it is but she sounded frantic."

They pulled up at the bar and just missed being hit by a man thrown through the front window, and figuring that a fight was going on they rushed in but upon entering found the place looked like everything was normal. Hannibal spotted Jean right away and she saw him too because she practically ran over to them.

"Thanks for coming, Hannibal," she said.

"It's alright, where's Murdock?" he asked.

Jean pointed to the bar and they saw Murdock sitting on one of the bar stools with his head and a good part of his upper body sprawled on the bar's counter.

"What's wrong with him?" Face asked.

Jean looked at them and explained, "We're going to get our marriage annulled."

"What!?" was the general consensus among the men.

"Oh man, no wonder he's depressed," Face said.

Jean shrugged and said, "It was his idea, Face, he was the one that said we should get the annulment. Then he said we should stop somewhere for a drink and we came in here an hour ago and he's been like that the whole time, he never even ordered a drink."

"Has he said anything?" Hannibal asked.

"I don't think he wants to see me right now," she told him.

"Alright," he said, "Face and I'll go talk to him. B.A., you stay here with Jean."

"Right, Hannibal," B.A. responded.

Hannibal and Face went over to the bar and found Murdock sprawled on the counter with his head laying on its side and a faraway look in his eyes.

"Murdock," Hannibal said, "Are you alright?"

He rolled his eyes to look up at them but otherwise didn't move, "Yeah, Colonel, I'm fine."

"We heard what happened," Face said as he sat down beside him, "I'm sorry, Murdock."

"Yeah well…I decided it would be the best thing for us, for both of us…for all of us," the captain replied.

Hannibal carefully placed one gloved hand on the man's back and asked him, "Why do you think it's best for all of us, Captain?"

Murdock sat up and looked at them and said, "I know you guys didn't approve of the marriage, but that's not what this is about. I don't want Jean being a liability and that's all she is, that's the only reason she agreed to get married in the first place. I'd rather have Decker chasing me along with the rest of you, than have her become a target too just because she's my wife."

Hannibal felt he already knew the answer to his next question but he asked anyway, not really asking so much as stating, "But you still love her."

Murdock turned to him with a sly smirk on his face and a coy look in his eyes, "Very much, Colonel, but I think it would be better for both of us if we weren't married, at least not to each other."

"Well that's a very open minded way of looking at it," Face commented.

Murdock surprised them both by picking up a vase that was set on the bar and he took the flowers out and drank the water in it. Then he bit the stems off the flowers and started chewing on them, then he put both items down and slumped on the countertop again. Face leaned forward on it to look at him as he said, "You shouldn't beat yourself up about this, Murdock, Jean was lucky to have you."

Murdock had given up on chewing the stems and spat them out and asked, "You think so, Facey?"

"Sure," Face told him, "I mean think about it, by some standards you were the ideal husband: you never came home late, never worked late at an office, you never left your dirty laundry all over the floor, always picked up after yourself, any time Jean needed you, you were always there."

Murdock tried to smile but he buried his face in his hands and said, "I think I'm cursed."

"What do you mean?" Hannibal asked.

"First I leave Cutter at the altar, and now I actually go through with a marriage and I can't stay in it either," Murdock told him as he shook his head, "Something's wrong with me. Maybe I'm just not meant to be married to anybody."

"It could be," Hannibal said, "But I don't think that's the case." He sat down on the other side of Murdock and told the captain, "I think the problem is you and Jean got married for the wrong reason…another thing to consider, I think you both also got married too young." Murdock smiled and sheepishly looked the other way. "You said it yourself, neither one of you had been married before, maybe you needed a crash course to get some experience with it first, so you'll do better next time."

"Next time?" Murdock repeated.

"Who knows?" Face asked, "You know, maybe after a couple of years, you and Jean could even get married again…like Hannibal said, you'd have a better idea then how to make it work. It has happened, it's a very common fact that most remarriages are to the same people."

Murdock's eyebrows scrunched up together as he considered what Face said, "I hadn't thought about that."

"It's something to think about anyway," Hannibal noted, "You're young, Murdock, you've got plenty of time to decide if and when you want to be married, and you have the perfect opportunity now because you got yourself declared sane meaning by law you _can_ marry anyone at anytime when you're ready."

Murdock jerked a thumb back towards Jean's direction, "Because of her."

"Well she helped speed the process along when she told Richter you two wanted to be married," Face admitted, "But I think she's right, I think you could've gotten released at any time."

"I suppose so," he replied.

"Well whatever you decide," Hannibal told him, "I don't think you'll have to worry about much competition, look."

Murdock and Face turned back to see one of the barflies who clearly had had too much to drink was hitting on Jean and she was trying with great difficulty not to send him out the window as well, tempting though it clearly was. Then B.A. came into the picture and with very few words and surprisingly few movements, managed to scare the man off, and most likely anyone else in the bar who would've had any similar ideas.

"Looks like B.A.'s doing what he does best," Face said, "Scaring people."

Hannibal clapped his hand on Murdock's shoulder and asked him, "Feeling better, Captain?"

"Yeah I guess," he replied and stood up, "Guess we might as well go home."

They got up and followed behind him incase one of them had to catch him, Murdock managed to stay on his feet and he walked over to B.A. and Jean and he hugged her and said, "I'm sorry, Saint."

"It's alright, Murdock," she told him, "If this is what you want to do, then we will," she looked to the lieutenant and added, "Tomorrow Face and I can go to the courthouse and get the annulment papers."

"Me?" Face repeated, "Why me?"

"Are you sure?" Murdock asked her.

"Sure," she replied, "I'm relieved…" she smiled at him and explained, "At least this lets me off the hook for motherhood, I'm not ready to worry about kids yet."

Hannibal told Jean that he would go with them in her car and drive them back, and Face and B.A. would follow in the van, and as they left he leaned over to Face and B.A. and told them that they would drop Murdock and Jean off at the house, and then the three of them would find a motel room for the night, because he had a good idea that between the two spouses, emotions would run high and raw and they were entitled to their privacy when that happened. The lieutenant and the sergeant agreed and without a further word they left the bar and headed for Jean's home.

* * *

The next night Jean and Murdock were seated at the dining room table downing shots of whiskey and going over the annulment papers while Hannibal, B.A. and Face tried to stay out of the way by watching a game in the living room, but they couldn't help overhearing the discussion.

"We gotta come up with a reason why we're doing this," Jean told him, "The court wants to know since we're having our marriage declared legally non-existent, on what grounds."

"How about the fairgrounds?" Murdock asked.

Jean slapped him on the top of his baseball cap and pointed with her pen at the paperwork, "I mean look at these options: bigamy, incest, prior existing marriage…"

"Three strikes and you're out on those," he told her.

Jean read on, "Physical force, lack of consent, under age of consent…"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," Murdock replied.

She continued, "Unsound mind."

"Not anymore," he grinned.

"Ohhh," Jean laughed, "Here's one." She leaned over and whispered it into Murdock's ear, and his grin disappeared, and he told her, "Find something else, I don't want _that_ listed in a record next to my name for the rest of my life."

Under her breath she told him, "Next time Face marries a woman for business, _he_ ought to use it." That got a snicker from Murdock, and Face found himself reaching for the remote control to turn up the volume on the football game.

"Here's one," Murdock told her, "Here's our perfect excuse. Remember before we went to the judge's house I said we should stop off and get a drink first?"

"Yeah and we both had champagne, so what?" Jean asked.

"So," Murdock said haughtily, "The court cannot prove how much we had to drink on the night in question, so our legal reason why our marriage is fit for annulment is because we were both too drunk to know what we were really doing."

"Sounds good to me," Jean agreed, "I'm just glad we decided to do this before we had children." She stopped and scratched her head, "But you know that reminds me of something."

"What?" Murdock asked.

"If we did have kids, _who_ do you think they would look like?"

Murdock pointed into the living room for his answer.

"Then it's a good thing we're calling this off now," Jean said, "I'm not ready to have kids and I'm in _no_ mood to start off with triplets."

* * *

Hannibal was awoken in the night by the sound of somebody knocking on his door. "Who is it?" he asked.

"It's me," he heard Face reply, "Can I come in?"

Hannibal yawned and sat up, "I suppose so, what's on your mind, Face?"

The door opened and Face came in, closed it behind him and went over to the bed and sat down at the foot of it, "I wanted to ask you a question about Murdock."

"What is it?" Hannibal asked.

"Well it's about what we talked about before, about where he's going to stay now that he's been discharged from the V.A.," Face explained, "I mean now that he and Jean are getting divorced…"

"An annulment," Hannibal corrected him.

"Right, anyway…"

They were interrupted by somebody else knocking at the door.

"Who is it?" Hannibal asked again.

"It's me, Colonel," Murdock answered, "Can I come in?"

Hannibal rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to laugh, "Sure Murdock."

The door opened and Murdock stepped in and paid little attention to the lieutenant being in the room other than to say, "Hi, Face." He made a beeline over to the bed and jumped on the unoccupied side and sent them all bobbing up and down on the mattress.

"Murdock, I'm getting seasick," Face told him.

"Sorry, Face," Murdock turned to Hannibal and asked him, "Colonel, can I talk to you?"

Hannibal smiled like the cat that was in the process of swallowing the canary and sat back against his pillow, "What's on your mind, Murdock?"

"Well actually, Colonel, I wanted to talk to you about the present situation of my living conditions, you see…"

Murdock was interrupted when they heard someone else coming and they saw B.A. standing in the doorway.

"This is getting to be a regular slumber party, don't tell me, let me guess," Hannibal said, "You were lonesome out there all by yourself."

B.A. growled and told him, "No," and he revealed he had Jean by the arm and gave her a slight shove in, "I figured since everybody else was up, we might as well get everyone in here and get this over with so I can go back to sleep. All your jibber jabber is keeping me awake."

Jean walked over to the bed and sat down on the other end at the foot of it, "Hannibal, I want to talk to you."

"That seems to be a running gag around here," Hannibal said, "Alright, what is it?"

"Look, I just want you to know that just because Murdock and I are getting our marriage annulled, it doesn't change what you and I agreed on." She glanced over at Murdock and said, "If he wants to stay here, he's perfectly welcome to it, I can just make up one of the guest rooms permanently for him. I'd be happy to have him here, and the other rooms will still be in reserve for whenever you guys come back."

"That's very generous, Jean, all things considered," Hannibal said.

"I'm not bitter because we're not going to be married anymore," she told him, "It doesn't change anything."

Hannibal looked to Murdock and asked him, "How about it, Captain? Would you be up to that?"

Murdock didn't answer right away and Hannibal thought he knew why; Murdock was a hard one to read but after knowing him for as many years as Hannibal did, he found it was a gradual progress and figured in a few more years he'd be able to read Murdock like a Zane Grey novel. For the time being he was able to read in Murdock's facial expression many things: hesitation, confusion, anxiety, he was starting to wonder if the others wanted him around anymore. It came as a real kick in the head to Hannibal because he had always questioned if the captain would want to be around _them_ anymore once he was out of the hospital.

"Or would you rather stay with us?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock's eyes lit up a bit at that, but he still seemed uncertain about what was the best decision.

"There's a third choice," Jean told them, "We alternate, we all have a turn with him, he stays with one of us until he can't put up with us anymore, then moves onto the next one."

"Hey now that's a great idea," Murdock said as he got up, "One week I could stay here with Jean, then the next week I could stay with you, and the week after that I could stay with Face," he went around the bed pointing at each of them, and then went over to B.A., "And then the next week I could…" B.A. turned and glared at him and growled under his breath, so Murdock sidestepped around him and went around the bed and said, "Come back here and stay with Jean again."

"You see?" Hannibal asked, "It's the perfect plan, that way everybody's happy."

"Great, maybe now I can get some sleep," B.A. said dryly.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Face added.

"Me too," Hannibal said, "Alright, everybody get out of the bed, and goodnight."

Everybody exchanged a round of 'goodnight's and headed off to their own rooms.

"You're alright with the idea, aren't you, Facey?" Murdock asked.

"Sure, Murdock, you know I can always scam a place big for both of us, hell big enough for the four of us," Face said, "No inconvenience whatsoever."

"You want to talk inconvenience?" Jean asked him, "Try getting dragged out of bed in the middle of the night by a 300 pound mudsucker wearing pajamas with footies on them."

Murdock and Face stopped in their tracks and looked at the man walking ahead of them. B.A. stopped and turned around and growled, "What're you looking at?"

"Uh, something else entirely," Murdock answered.

"What he said," Face added as he reached his door, "Goodnight, B.A."

Murdock went down the hall to Jean's room and shut the door, leaving just she and B.A. in the hall.

"You _will_ let him come and stay with you, won't you, B.A.?" Jean asked him, when he took his time to answer she added, "It would mean a lot to him."

"I know it," B.A. quietly replied.

"You never could fool me, B.A.," Jean said, "You act like a grump around him all the time, but I know you like him. He _is_ your friend."

He gave a little smile and confided in her, "Alright, I do." He looked to make sure Murdock wasn't around to hear that and added, "But don't let him know that, if the fool knew I liked him he would drive me crazy by acting even crazier than he already does."

"I think he already knows, B.A.," Jean told him, "Goodnight."

Jean went to her room and closed the door behind her and as she went over to the bed she asked Murdock, "You asleep?"

"Not yet," he answered as he sat up.

"I want to talk to you," she said as she climbed on the bed alongside him.

"Sure, what is it?"

"I think we should hold off on filing for an annulment. It's nothing that needs to be done right away, we _do_ have a few months before we'd have to get around to it you know."

"How come?" he asked, "You want to stay married?"

Jean shrugged and said, "It's like we said before, a marriage license is just a piece of paper, it's all just a legal technicality. But, the longer we hold off on it, the longer you don't have to worry about the government hunting for you. And, maybe in a couple of months we'll call it off, or maybe we won't. You remember what Hannibal said, better marriages have started on less. I _do_ like being married to you."

"I like being married to you too," he said, "But I just don't know if it's actually going to work, if it's what's best for all of us."

"You have a good point, that's certainly true," Jean agreed, "But if you're not sure, that's all the more reason why we ought to just leave this alone for a while and think about it, we'll still have time later to make it official if it doesn't work. But in the meantime we could have one of those long distance relationships, you know, you and the others travel the earth on missions, helping the widows and orphans and all that, I'll stay here and work on my own life."

"Oh that reminds me!" Murdock said, "Do you feel up to seeing a movie tomorrow night?"

"What movie?" she asked.

"Oh it's a new one that's still in progress, it's a preview screening to see if it'll work, the working title for it is Down and About in L.A."

Jean grimaced and said, "With a name like that they might as well rename it The Rover Boys: The 609th Adventure."

Murdock smiled and told her, "I think you'll like it."

"Why?"

* * *

The next night, Hannibal, Face, Murdock, B.A. and Jean were seated in a private screening room at the film studio after everyone else had gone home for the night, for the first screening of the movie Hannibal and Face had spliced together combining Murdock's camera footage, and various bits and pieces from many old movies they found readily accessible in the studio's film vaults. All of them laughed themselves sick as the film changed from the food fight at the restaurant with the MPs, perfectly exposing each and every one of their faces for the world to see, to stock footage from black and white movies involving much larger brawls in restaurants, bars, and in the middle of the streets. Then the film cut back to Jean driving, and then cut to Murdock getting in a helicopter, and cut to Jean pushing Decker out of the helicopter.

"It'll be better here if we can dub over it," Hannibal explained.

When the film ran out, Face got up to collect the film so when people came in the next morning, nobody would ever know the projector had been used.

"Our biggest problem," Hannibal told Jean, "Is that we don't have a real ending for it yet."

"That's your biggest problem?" Jean asked over her laughing, "Hannibal, the whole film is barely held together by the footage that changes on average about every three seconds, from black and white, to Technicolor, to today's color, and from silent with music, to full sound…and you really think this is going to launch my career in the movies?"

"It's publicity," Hannibal told her, "It'll put your name, your face out, we make a thousand copies of this film, ship it to theaters all throughout the country, word of mouth draws a lot of attention to it, who knows? It could be a big sensation."

"Hannibal, who do you know stupid enough to want to make a thousand copies of that thing?" she asked.

Face extended his hand to her and said, "My name is Templeton Peck and I'll be your idiot."

"You?!" she asked in disbelief.

"I guess I forgot to tell you about the film company I've started, Miracle Films, 'If it's a good film, it's a Miracle.' Catchy, don't you think?" he asked.

"You're going to produce this film?" Jean asked, "Your company will sink like a stone."

"Well you know what they say," Murdock said, "Eat, sink and be merry."

"Shut up you crazy fool," B.A. told him, "You're talking less sense than usual."

"The way I see it, we're killing two birds with one stone," Face explained to Jean, "We're on the path to making you a household word as far as fresh new actors goes, and since Murdock's sane and has a place in the outside world now, we can get him billed as the director of this film, and if it's a hit, he becomes a household word too."

"And if it doesn't?" Jean asked.

"Then he can still get work in the movies as a stunt pilot," Face answered, "You already got _that_ ball rolling."

"Hey that's a great idea, Face," Murdock's eyes lit up, "I'd be perfect for that."

"Yeah," B.A. agreed, "You do _that_ and _we_ don't go flying anywhere." He turned to Hannibal and warned him, "I told you for the last time, Hannibal, I ain't getting on no plane."

"Who said _anything_ about a plane?" Hannibal asked.

"I've got another idea," Jean said, "You said we need to dub over the film? Well we know Murdock's capable of about a hundred voices, we could have him dub over the speaking parts and if all else fails, he could get work as a voice actor."

"It's an idea alright," Face noted, "I wouldn't necessarily say a _good_ one, but it could be worth a try. The real problem is we still don't have an ending for it."

"That's easily solved," Jean said, and turning to Murdock she asked him, "You know where to find a new reel of film to record with, right?"

Murdock just grinned and nodded rapidly.

* * *

"One thing is for sure, it's a lot easier to actually shoot a movie straight through than piece it together," Murdock said as they wound the footage back to watch again.

"Really ingenious, Face," Hannibal said, "Actually letting yourself be recorded on film. Decker's going to think you're slipping."

"Well it's not like anybody's going to calling me to make any further appearances in the movies," Face told him, "And we're not getting paid for this anyway so what does it matter?"

"Well let's see how it turned out," Hannibal said as he started the projector again.

On the screen they saw Face, Murdock and Jean bust into a room dressed in tan camouflage and combat helmets and carrying rifles. The footage had been changed to stock footage of a Bengal tiger stalking around and growling; it cut back to the three hunters firing their guns at an angle just slightly off from the camera. A lot of smoke came up from somewhere and when the smoke cleared it showed Murdock hauling the stuffed tiger over his head, but he fell to the ground as if it was a real 300 pound tiger. So Jean and Face had to help lift it off of him and Jean took one end, Face took another end, Murdock took the end in the middle and they marched off with their catch. Then the film switched to a streak of tigers running through the jungle, then switched back to the three hunters loading their kill into a helicopter, then one by one they climbed in and Murdock flew them out of there. In the movie they heard one of Murdock's deeper voices narrate, "It's a long, hard road that leads both into the concrete jungle, as well as nature's own, but the three travelers found out the easiest way to travel is by air where there is no freeway in the sky." Then THE END came on the film and the credits started.

"That's got to be the _worst_ ending I've ever seen," Face told Hannibal once the film stopped.

"I've seen worse," Murdock told Face, "Remember the Wizard of Oz?"

"What about it?" Face asked.

"That ending," Murdock said, and went on a mini tirade, "_Why_ did they change the story so it was all a dream? _What_ was the point in that? What sense does that make? They had a chance to leave the doorway open for 13 sequels, and what did they do? They shut that door, _why_? That means none of it happened, no flying monkeys, no wicked witch, no evil apple trees tossing their fruit at innocent passersby, whose bright idea was _that_ one?"

Hannibal smiled at Murdock's rant but instead of offering his own two cents, just said, "We'll put the finishing touches in later, but we got enough film put together to make the movie an hour and a half long, that's good enough to get it established as an actual movie and get it distributed."

"You really think this is going to _help_ Jean's movie career?" Face asked.

"It can't hurt any," Hannibal said.

"You really believe that?" Face asked him.

"Well even if he doesn't, Face, look on the bright side," Murdock told him, "It'll get her name out and give her talent some promotion _and_ it's going to draw a lot of attention to the local branch of the Army."

"Well that's because we had such a great cameraman during the shoot," Face replied humorously.

* * *

"I should've brought this up sooner," Murdock told Jean as they headed for the front door, "While I'm here…_and_ while I'm gone, would you mind letting Billy stay here with you? I don't like the idea of taking him with me right away, he's traveled a lot more over the last few months than most dogs do, I want to make sure he's fully recovered from the last flight before I take him up in a plane again."

"You know I don't like dogs, Murdock," Jean told him, "But I know how important this is for you, so yeah he can stay here, _as long_ as he keeps out of my way."

"Oh you don't have to worry about that," Murdock assured her, "Billy's a very good dog. Now he likes doggie biscuits and he likes to sleep on two of your shoes at the same time, and…"

They stepped down from the front porch and Jean followed him out to the van and handed him his bag as he got in.

"So who is this new client of yours?" Jean asked Hannibal, "Isn't it kind of odd you guys leaving the state without putting this guy through your usual wringer with the Asian laundry man and all that?"

"It's an old friend of ours," he explained, "We know he's okay." He leaned out the window and told her, "Incidentally, Jean, I'm sorry we have to leave before you guys were able to go through with the annulment."

"Oh that's alright, Hannibal," she told him, "We'll just wait and get the papers filed when you guys come back." As she spoke she glanced towards Murdock in the back and winked at him, but Hannibal hadn't noticed and neither did Face when Murdock returned the knowing look.

"Oh that reminds me," she said, and knocked on the back window. Murdock put it down and she told him, "I've got something for you, I'll be right back." She disappeared back in the house and returned a few seconds later and held something up to the window and Murdock didn't know what to make of what she held in her hand.

"Your teddy bear?" he asked.

"I wanted to make up for about biting Bogey's ear off when I was in the hospital," she told him as she dropped it in the window, "Besides, I don't need it anymore, now I've got Murdock."

"You named the tiger after Murdock?" Face asked.

"Yes," Jean said matter-of-factly, "That way the next time Decker comes nosing around asking questions, I can swear to the fact that Murdock has been at home with me the whole time."

Hannibal laughed, "I like your thinking, kid."

Jean looked back at him and didn't say anything at first, and when she did speak she told him, "You better get going."

"Right, we'll see you when we get back to town," Hannibal told her, then turned to B.A. and said, "Alright, B.A., hit it."

Jean stood in the driveway and waved as they pulled out, Murdock watched from his window until she was just a blur, and when he couldn't see her anymore, he gripped her teddy bear in his hand. He remembered it was the same one her mother had sent with B.A. when they first took the case for the Rhodes to find their daughter. He also remembered seeing it in her bed at the hospital after she'd been shot, the big mudsucker had carried the bear around in his pocket until they got her to the hospital and once she was settled in a private room he'd put it with her. And now she had given it to him, he wasn't exactly sure what to make of that but he felt a sense of pride on some level that she trusted it in his care.

"How long do you think it's going to take us to get there?" Face asked Hannibal after half an hour.

Instead of checking his watch, Hannibal leaned over to look at the speedometer and he told Face, "At the rate B.A. drives, I'd say another hour. By the way, Face, did you get those copies of the film made and sent out?"

"Yes, Hannibal, the theaters we picked should be receiving them by Thursday," Face told him.

"That's good, and did you make the changes I told you to?" Hannibal asked.

"Yes, during the ending credits I froze a closeup frame of Decker and put under the picture, 'Miracle Films wishes to thank Colonel Roderick Decker and the United States Army for their support and cooperation with this film'."

"Good," Hannibal said, biting back a laugh, "And did you take care of that other thing I told you about?"

"Yes," Face answered, "I had an extra copy made and sent it directly to Decker's home. It'll probably be the first movie he's seen in 20 years and once he catches the ending he'll most likely be sorry that he did."

"I'm just sorry we couldn't get a closeup of you in it, Colonel," Murdock told him.

"Oh that's alright, Murdock," Hannibal responded, "For now I'm content with my role as the Aquamaniac. Though that reminds me, how's that idea for working as a stunt pilot working out?"

"Well there's nothing so far," Murdock answered, "But I figure once this first movie we did gets out, _then_ people will be interested."

Up front they heard B.A. snort at that and he told Murdock, "Anybody that'd hire you to fly would have to be crazier than you are, fool."

Murdock looked over to the side and saw Face preparing a syringe with B.A.'s night-night shot and said only, "Whatever you say, B.A., I guess things are just back to business as usual."

Author's note: I originally wrote this story because I wanted a followup to "Brutus" that wasn't as dark and serious as it had been. It was also written with the intention to officially end the run for featuring my OC, Jean Rhodes. I've since then decided instead to leave that particular door open for the possibility of a third story someday. I'm thankful to the readers who stuck around for every chapter, and especially to those that took the time to let me know what they thought of the story. I hope you've enjoyed it, as well as how it ended.


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